On the Border

Writing this from Camp Shocker, a small U.S. Army base about 5 km from the border with Iran, near a town called Badrah. From here we can look to the east and see some impressive mountains in the haze. That's Iran. This area reminds me a bit of southern California, particularly the Chocolate Mountains area near the Salton Sea.

Yesterday we went up to the "POE," or point-of-entry, a sprawling confusion of fences, T-walls, check points, milling people, and lines of parked trucks. We climbed an observation tower to get an overview. Looking over into Iran there was a fleet of parked trucks, filled with watermelons and canteloupes, that had arrived during the night. Below the tower was a line of empty trucks from Iraq, waiting to enter a neutral zone to receive the loads of Iranian cargo. We met some produce brokers who were walking over to the Iranian trucks to begin bidding, auction style, on the loads of produce. Once a deal is struck, the Iranian trucks move into the neutral zone and the cargo is loaded onto the Iraqi trucks. Depending on the time of year, lots of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, as well as building materials and all manner of consumer goods are passed across the border.

The POE has three "corridors," one each for cargo, people, and fuel. Iraq allows 2,000 people to cross the POE from Iran every day. Most are religious pilgrims headed for the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf. It takes about 45-90 minutes to cross the border. Every military-age male is processed by both American and Iraqi authorities. They are photographed, fingerprinted, and given a retinal scan. Waiting for the pilgrims on the Iraqi side is a fleet of large air-conditioned buses and small mini-vans. The flow of fuel across the POE is in one direction only, from Iran to Iraq. Tanker trucks carrying refined fuels (diesel, gasoline, kerosene, and propane) represent a critical lifeline because the refinery capacity in Iraq comes nowhere near meeting demand. The lines at gas stations are really impressive and no doubt try the patience of even the most stout-hearted Iraqi motorist.

Next we visited the mayor of Zurbatia, a small, tidy town, with broad clean streets, a pleasant but quiet place. He told us a story we've heard a lot in this area, that the Iranians have constructed a series of dams that restrict the flow of water into this part of Iraq. Most of the farmers in this area would like to grow crops of wheat and barley, and try to do that the best they can most years, but the main crop here is sheep, which are grazed on sparse range land dotted with clumps of thorny plants. Unlike other parts of this province and many other parts of Iraq with a long history of irrigation, the land here is good and the soil isn't too salty to grow crops. We heard about the need for dam projects, well projects, a big project that brings water here from the Tigris River. One or more of these are needed for farmers here to realize the agricultural potential of this area.

We have visited two small villages since coming here a couple of days ago, and we'll visit another one tomorrow morning. We heard from villagers about how the Iraqi army destroyed one village during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, with most of the surrounding grazing land turned into a battlefield. We heard how Saddam cut down local date-palm orchards to punish local villagers because they were thought to be Iranian sympathizers. The determined villagers returned in 1988 to rebuild their community. Now they struggle to be farmers, facing the effects of an extended drought and with next to no government subsidies or other support. They are so determined and optimistic that they will sell sheep in order to buy seeds when needed if those that are promised by the Ministry of Agriculture arrive too late to plant at the proper time.

Just before leaving the village that we visited early this morning, several farmers produced pieces of paper that indicated that they were being fined for planting vegetables, which had been forbidden by the area water resources director general (DG) because the crop required too much scarce water. The way the story was told and translated, we left with the impression that the farmers had been done a grave and unreasonable injustice. After all, the farmers were just growing vegetables for their own consumption. We promised to take the matter up with local agricultural and water resource officials we had scheduled to meet later in the morning. At the meeting, the water resource DG grew animated and indignant when we raised the subject. First of all, the water resources DG was a woman, wrapped in the traditional abaya, but she was assertive and outspoken, and had the ear of the Badrah mayor and was deferred to by the other assembled ag and water DGs. She claimed that the farmers had been warned prior to being fined and that she was, for the first time in the area, attempting to uphold local regulations about water use. She said that the farmers did not realize that what they were doing was affecting the availability of water for the commercially valuable date palm orchards. As the meeting broke up, she and one of our translator/BBAs really got into it, none of it personal, but this woman is obviously passionate about her work. Because she can see the big picture of all the pressures on water resources in the area, she has to make tough decisions that result in fines and that are unpopular with villagers who are used to using water without regard to other users. This is classic "Tragedy of the Commons" stuff.

So, in the morning we had promised to return to the village for lunch. Although we were tired and hot from a long morning of meetings, we headed back to the village. The village farmers were off tending to business elsewhere, but the village sheikh was there and hosted a fabulous lunch of barbecued and boiled lamb, chunks of lamb liver and fat from the tail of the sheep, bowls of cucumber salad and pickles, fresh loaves of pita bread, laban (yogurt), watermelon, and dates. The sheikh was obviously not keeping fast during Ramadan and in fact spoke openly of his large appetites for food and sex. We told him of our meeting with the water resources DG and admitted that the arguments of his fellow farmers did not have much merit. So, we brought the complaint full circle. It would have been nice to talk with the farmers that originally brought this up. It is clear that we did not get the full story from them when we spoke about it this morning.

Another thing that keeps coming up is the expectations that people have of us. Whether farmers at the village level, agriculture and water resource leaders, members of provincial councils, and even governors we have met, all have high expectations of us. We try our best to listen to their concerns and hopefully through the reports we write, the recommendations we make, and some of the projects we start, we will be able to make some small difference in the lives of the people here. At the very least, we know that we have fostered goodwill and created a positive impression. The people we have met are all positive about our engagment with them.