In June 2005, the wetlands of the Wasit Nature Reserve comprised a southeast to northwesterly running swathe of highly impacted saline and hypersaline wetlands, with wetland habitats in Phase 1 ranging from brackish seeps to a mosaic of seasonally saturated and artificially inundated salt flats and saltmarsh ponds, surrounded by dense halophytic scrub vegetation, all the way to large, permanently inundated, artificial water bodies.