The flexible reeds are used to build arched reed houses in a design unchanged for thousands of years as well as burned for fuel.

A woman in Iraq s southern marshes gathering reeds.

Women gather reeds in Iraq's southern marshlands.

He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.

And they shall turn the rivers far away and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up the reeds and flags shall wither.

A 7000 year old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.

Cuneiform texts were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed used as a stylus.

Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.

Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver scatter thou the people that delight in war.

The rivers provided the further benefits of fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds, and clay (for building materials).

This is a kenaf clinic. You get seed and you grow it in a plot of land, and then once and it grows 14 feet in a month.

While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

Bufallo milk, a staple of the diet here, is also boiled over reed fires and turned into a thick cream to be sold.

Its wall consists of three layers, surrounding a central chamber, which is connected to the water by a ramp, also composed of reeds.

Inhabitants of the marshes known as the Ma dan share the floating islands where they build reed houses with domesticated water buffalo, usually a household s most valuable possession.

The lowlands in the west are mostly swampy the reed filled marshes of the area are called ciénagas by the people of Colombia.

Sumerian clay tablets from more than 5,000 years ago portray arched houses built from reeds the same way they are still built today.

External variances caused by parties or situations external to the United Nations

1 ASG, 1 P 5, 1 P 4, 2 GS OL, 2 NS

1 D 1, 1 GS OL, 10 NS

1 P 5, 1 GS OL

Human resources

Office of Chief Executive Officer 8

Office of Chief Executive Officer 8

Pension Entitlements and Client Services

Financial Services Section

Engineering Section

Security and Safety Section

Summary of follow up action taken to implement requests and recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and the Office of Internal Oversight Services

a Represents highest level of authorized proposed strength.

United Nations Military Observers

Uruguay

(to be confirmed)

Pakistan

Military Observer Coordination Centre, Kisangani

Senegal

Formed Police Unit

1 P 3f),

1 P 4,c

65 NS (28 NSc),

1 P 2,

1 P 5,

1 P 2c,