Azzam Alwash (1958; in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: عزام علواش ''ʻAzām ʻAlwāš'') is an Iraqi hydraulic engineer and environmentalist. He was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists. History Awardees are named from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, an ...

in 2013, in particular for his efforts on restoring

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es in southern Iraq that had been destroyed during the

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

regime. Alwash left Iraq in 1978 at the age of 20 because he refused to join the ruling

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

. Halfway through an engineering degree, Alwash moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and continued his studies. Following the 2003 invasion, Alwash returned to Iraq and set up a non-profit,

Nature Iraq Nature Iraq () is Iraq's first and only environmental conservation group. It is an Iraqi non-governmental organization, accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and affiliated to BirdLife International. They seek to protect, r ...

, to focus on restoring the salt marshes of southern Iraq.

References

1958 births Living people Iraqi engineers Iraqi environmentalists Iraqi refugees Iraqi expatriates in the United States Goldman Environmental Prize awardees {{Iraq-bio-stub