TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tainted Water Another Fear In Iraq

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: August 2, 2008

BAGHDAD - Just months after Americans repaired a sewage treatment plant in southern Baghdad, insurgents attacked the facility and killed the manager. Looters took care of the rest.

Nearly three years later, the plant remains an abandoned shell. Raw sewage flows freely through giant pipes into the Tigris River, ending up in some of the capital's drinking water. And those pipes aren't the only source of contamination.

The water crisis began as a symptom of the problems that plagued reconstruction efforts in the early years of the war. Extremists attacked infrastructure projects, including electricity stations and sewage plants, to undermine support for the United States and its Iraqi allies.

The recent decline in violence is raising hopes that the government can focus on repairing critical public services crippled by war and neglect. Perhaps the most complex: trying to control what goes into waterways and what comes out of Baghdad taps.

U.S. and Iraqi officials insist that the tap water in most of Baghdad is of at least fairly good quality because it comes from less-polluted areas north of the city. In fact, more Iraqis nationwide have access to potable water now than before the war - 20 million people, compared with 12.9 million previously, according to Bowen's report.

Some Baghdad neighborhoods are not so lucky. The Tigris is so filthy with sewage and other pollutants that the local treatment facility can only do so much. To make matters worse, sewage then leaks into the potable water pipes.

On Friday, the U.S. military announced the opening of a water distribution site to prevent the mixing of sewage and drinking water in New Baghdad and Baladiyat.

It comes none too soon.

A cholera outbreak in northern Iraq last year killed 14 people. A similar outbreak of the waterborne disease in Baghdad, home to about 6 million people, could be far worse.

"Iraq is on the cusp of a serious water crisis that requires immediate attention and resources," said Thomas Naff, a Middle East water expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

The World Bank has estimated it would take $14.4 billion to rebuild the Iraqi public works and water system.

Iraq has been slow in spending its billions in oil revenue on public works projects despite insistence from U.S. military commanders who recommend quality-of-life improvements to undercut militants and win over Sunni districts wary of the Shiite-led government.

Mustafa Hamid, a spokesman for the Iraqi environment ministry, said the water pipe network is more than 50 years old and suffers from corrosion "which allows sewage water to infiltrate."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT