Over a million people in the embattled city of Basra in southern Iraq are facing a sixth day without access to clean water. Aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, with the malnourished population at risk of dehydration and disease, and United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has appealed for water supplies to be restored.
Workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are now struggling with local water engineers to reinstate water supplies to Iraq鈥檚 second largest city, following a total electricity blackout since Friday. The reported rupture of a major water main on Tuesday morning will only exacerbate the problem.
The main focus of the war has moved north towards the capital Baghdad. But Iraqi forces in Basra continue to resist US and UK troops. On Tuesday, British military commanders declared Basra a 鈥渕ilitary objective鈥�, in order to get humanitarian aid to its inhabitants. Previously, the coalition force鈥檚 stated desire to avoid civilian deaths had prevented an attempt to secure the city.
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Sixty per cent of the city鈥檚 two million residents are without access to any clean water, according to ICRC. And as people turn to the sewage-ridden River Tigris for drinking water, fears of disease outbreaks are growing.
UNICEF warns that at least 100,000 children under the age of five are at risk of death from diarrhoea and dehydration in Basra. Cholera, typhoid and the malaria-like blackwater fever are also endemic in the region, says Martin Dawes, a spokesman at UNICEF鈥檚 Iraq office in Amman.
鈥淭he crisis is now,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. The hot weather and lack of resources for boiling water are particular risks, he says. 鈥淎 lot of children died as a result of severe dehydration鈥� in the 1991 war, he says, and the population has been weakened since by years of poverty and malnutrition.
Salty and polluted
Basra鈥檚 water is normally supplied by the main Wafa al-Qaed pumping and treatment plant, which takes water from the Tigris. But power cuts have halted its operation.
Four smaller water treatment plants, usually supplied by Wafa al-Qaed, have now been connected to another river called the Shat al Arab by ICRC workers and local engineers. This is providing drinking water to about 40 per cent of Basra鈥檚 residents.
鈥淭he water is drinkable, but is definitely of worse quality than that received from the Tigris,鈥� says Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the ICRC in Geneva. He said because the water from the Shat al Arab river was relatively saline and polluted it was not suitable for long-term use.
Westphal told 快猫短视频 that two ICRC workers finally gained access to Wafa al-Qaed on Tuesday, but were waiting for more support before attempting to connect a back-up generator. He warned that even then restoration of water would not be immediate as it takes hours to build up pressure in the network of pipes.
鈥淚 am extremely worried for Basra,鈥� adds Robert Mardini, regional water co-ordinator for the ICRC, even if the main plant is restored. He says the water infrastructure in Basra was extremely fragile, with severe leaking, and has steadily deteriorated since 1991. The same problems could occur in Baghdad, he warns.
Dawes says UNICEF is putting in place a contract to provide water in Iraq by distributing and filling 55 鈥渨ater bladders鈥�, each carrying 5000 litres of water. But he says the work of the agency is 鈥渉eavily dependent鈥� on the military situation and being granted safe passage by forces on both sides.