Azraq Wetlands
The second reserve the RSCN has focused on is the Azraq Wetlands. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Azraq Oasis was opened to settlement and hundreds of wells were dug to irrigate crops as varied as olives and prickly pear cactus. The water table fell from near the surface to 12 m below and the springs at the oasis dried up. At the Azraq wetlands, ‘Ain Soda, the freshwater spring and pool that feeds the Dashsha Marsh, the 12 sq. km wetland, reversed itself and become a drain. When water from geological sources was pumped into the pool, the pool developed leaks and would not hold water, even with the spring sealed. The Azraq wetlands, it was assumed, were doomed.
Lowering of the water in the ‘Ain Soda pool
The RSCN’s solution was to sacrifice the ‘Ain Soda spring and pool but pump geological water directly into the wetlands, a series of channels that weave their way toward the center of the qa. Along its way, new pools to provide bird habitat are being constructed. A small herd of feral water buffalo obtained from Syria has been introduced in an attempt to rid the wetland of the plague of rank grass that now chokes it and to restore something of its naturally grazed variety. These attempts to save the Azraq Wetlands are subject to criticism in that an artificial wetland is replacing a natural one. The alternative, however, is no wetland at all, and its disappearance would mean the destruction of hundreds of thousands of migrating birds that depend on it.