The American Artist Working to Restore Iraq's Garden of Eden
After Saddam Hussein drained the ancient marshes, one artist joined engineers and locals to bring water, health, and vitality back to the Ahwar—reviving wetlands many consider the biblical Eden.
When Meridel Rubenstein’s neighbor drained the marshes around her family farm in Vermont nearly 20 years ago, she could not have known it would trigger an idea that would eventually lead the American artist to the arid wetlands of southern Iraq.
It was September 2006, and Rubenstein awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of howling coyotes circling the newly destroyed wetland and beaver pond. For some time, her neighbor had been claiming that these marshes were encroaching on her land, so she had just taken it upon herself to drain them and breach the dykes. (Engineered, linear embankments of earth, rock, or other materials designed to hold back tidal waters or river flows, protecting the land behind them from flooding.)
Rubenstein was devastated. To her, the “wild grasses, beaver, geese, ducks, heron, bass, turtles, frogs, otters, and muskrats had made this area a paradise,” she wrote in her 2017 book Eden Turned on Its Side. It was a place where her friend, Dickie, made his daily jaunts to feed the birds and “watch the evolution of this swamp into an oasis.”
But no more. By draining the wetlands, the actions of Rubenstein’s neighbor sent acres of muddy water, sediment, and alien bass into the town’s main (trout) stream and water supply.
A few years later, she saw a startling parallel on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, which was telling the story of the vast drained Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq. Just as her neighbor had altered Vermont’s landscape for personal gain, Saddam Hussein’s actions were reminiscent of this small-scale, localized devastation, but on a geopolitical scale.
In the 1990s, the Iraqi dictator deliberately drained the Ahwar, the ancient Mesopotamian marshes in his country, to punish Shi’a rebels hiding there.
The Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq, a vast wetland system between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are considered by many to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden and a, if not the, cradle of civilization
For thousands of years, the Marsh Arabs, or Maʻdān, had hitherto relied on its waters for fishing, hunting, and building their iconic reed homes. When Saddam’s forces diverted the flows of the Tigris and Euphrates, burned reed beds, and poisoned lagoons, the ecosystem was devastated. Thousands of Marsh Arabs were killed, and many more forced to flee. By the early 2000s, only 20 percent of the marshes remained.
After the 2003 US-led invasion, attempts to reflood the marshes regenerated about 30–40 percent of the original wetland area. Yet today, the Ahwar face a second, slower crisis: climate change and upstream dam construction in Iran and Turkey. Reduced rainfall, higher temperatures, and rising salinity threaten both human and ecological survival. The UN Environment Programme ranks Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to decreasing water and food availability and extreme temperatures.
Nature Iraq, the country’s first and only environmental NGO, was attempting to restore the marshes, but needed some help.
Enter Rubenstein. In 2011, she was teaching at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore when she learned about the initiative. So when she received a grant of $65,000, she used it to assemble a multidisciplinary team: Jassim Al-Asadi, managing director of Nature Iraq; engineers David Tocchetto and Mark Nelson; and Iraqi-Dutch project manager Zahra Souhail.
Together, they launched Eden in Iraq, a project that combines wastewater garden technology with ecological knowledge to regenerate the area. Once completed, the 6.4-acre site in Al-Chibayish, a town on the Euphrates River, will serve up to 10,000 residents.
Getting a visa to Iraq back then was a mission. “On the day we arrived in Baghdad, Osama bin Laden [founder of al-Qaeda] had been killed!” she laughs, as she recalls the events of May 2011. Her colleague advised that they hide their Jewish identities “just in case.”
However, all their fears dissipated once they headed into the marshes.
“Once you get in the boats, you’re hooked forever,” says Rubenstein. “All these canals, tall reeds, and pomegranates.”
But in many places, the water gave way to bare, cracked earth. There were other things that gave Rubenstein cause for concern. The rapid return of residents in the 2000s led to serious health problems, as many areas lacked a proper sewage system.
“The town councils said there was no sewage collection, just rubber pipes dumping sewage into the Euphrates, then into the marshes. There are no septic tanks.”
Waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever are common due to high levels of pollution from solid waste, including household and industrial waste.
To solve this issue, Eden in Iraq uses a “subsurface flow wetland” to transform wastewater. Bacteria break down organic material into minerals, which both purify the water and fertilize plants and fruit trees. “The reeds are ‘eating’ the sewage - they’re the kidney of the land!” Rubenstein explains. “It’s basically a natural, sewage ecosystem.”
Wastewater gardens are a proven technology, first developed in the Biosphere 2 project in the early 1990s and now implemented in over 200 locations worldwide.
This can be replicated all over the Middle East, says Rubenstein.
To pay homage to the area and its traditions, the garden design draws deeply from Marsh Arab culture: reed architecture, earthen brick, and patterns inspired by Sumerian cylinder seals and embroidered Mesopotamian wedding blankets.
At the entrance will be a brightly colored panel featuring Inana, the Sumerian goddess of love and war.
“I’m all about peace building and communities,” says Rubenstein. “My belief is that beauty can change things.”
Phase one, completed in 2023, involved constructing perimeter walls, laying pipes, and planting the first reeds, which now reduce odor and clean around half of the wastewater. Phase two, yet to be started, will add an underground pipe network and additional plantings.
The garden will not just serve as a functional wastewater treatment system, but as a “symbol of hope,” says Rubenstein. “In a land devastated by conflict and climate change, we wanted to create something that renews life and honors history.”
The project has already received recognition: in 2020, UNESCO listed Eden in Iraq as one of its outstanding Global Green Citizen projects. Beyond cleaning water, the garden reconnects people to the marshlands they call home and preserves techniques and designs that stretch back 3,000–5,000 years.
Yet challenges remain. The team still needs just shy of $3 million to complete the garden and ensure long-term maintenance. The Iraqi bureaucracy has delayed the release of the $2 million in funding once promised by a former minister.
Then there’s the destabilizing role of neighboring Iran, which has led to some setbacks. “The state thinks any environmental work is being funded by Israel,” says Rubenstein. “You have local militias who are funded by Iran. Jassim [of Nature Iraq] was kidnapped for a brief period in 2023.”
Rubenstein last visited in 2022. The October 7 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza have made it difficult to return.
“You might wonder why I’d stick with this after all these years,” says the 77-year-old, predicting my next question. “I have the world’s greatest team; they won’t give up, and neither will I. I believe art can transform poison into nectar.”
Rubenstein and her team certainly have their work cut out for them.
Nevertheless, Eden in Iraq represents a model of what is possible when art and science intersect to restore both ecosystems and human dignity.
Through Meridel Rubenstein’s vision, the Ahwar may once again flourish, not just as a marshland, but as a living testament to the enduring spirit of the Marsh Arabs.
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