All Day to Go

​Image © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.  
Wilfred Thesiger: "​Thesiger's Tarada in the Marshes." Faraigat Marshes between Qubab and Rufaiya, Iraq, 1953.
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​In the 1950s, paddling from marsh fringes to market towns was an all-day affair, but relatively straight forward along well-travelled, cleared routes. Now, a boat trip that would take three hours with a small outboard motor would still take all day - because the direct water routes are gone. In this example, there would be no point to the trip, because Qubab and Rufaiya themselves, left high and dry by drainage, no longer exist. California natives understand well the fate of towns without water; our profound thanks for their sympathy to the cause of wetland restoration.