Water Treatment Plant

Before the Gulf War the yearly budget for maintaining the water and sewer installations in Iraq amounted to 100,000,000 Dollars, in 1996 it was only 8,000,000 Dollars. In 1997 the water treatment facilities operated only at 40% of their original capacity. The sewage treatment facilities were hardly ever serviced and the untreated sewage poured into the rivers, which provided drinking water for a large proportion of the population. As a result of the neglect of the Southern regions of the country by the former regime and of halting the supply of spare parts for the purification and treatment plants by the provisions of the sanctions, the region of Basra was especially hard hit. On top of this the Basra water works were damaged during the battles of the war of 2003 and there was considerable looting of the installations of the municipal water installations during the war. The International Committee of the Red Cross fought for months against the looters, but the British refused to support the guarding of the installations. Traveling through the region one notices the abundance of water in this land and it is therefore more than grotesque that the Southern part of the country is suffering from such a water shortage.

In the middle of June 2004 the public health specialist of the WHO in Basra, Dr. Samson Samuel, announces that only 40% of the water requirement of the city will be available from the network of water mains, 60% of the population will be supplied with water from the river (Shat-el-Arab). Aside from bacteria the river contains innumerable toxins, leaking from old ships, hundreds of which lie at the bottom of the Shat-el-Arab. In this case neither the boiling of water, nor the addition of disinfectant tablets will help. In addition, according to local physicians, sewage from a large hospital nearby is channeled untreated into the river.

At the end of July 2004, the deputy of the UN Secretary General, Ross Mountain, draws attention to the fact that a humanitarian crisis in Basra is imminent. This due to the lack of clean drinking water, aggravated by insufficient electricity supply and again intensified by the prevailing high temperature. He says: “Nowhere in Iraq is the situation as bad as in Basra. It is unlikely that we will reach the pre-war level before the end of this year.” He fears political unrest in the city due to the shortage of water. “Water means life and if survival is at stake people will not sit idly at home and wait.”