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Agencies rush water { March 25 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Agencies Rush to Restore Water in Basra
Tue March 25, 2003 03:59 PM ET
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA (Reuters) - Red Cross experts struggled Tuesday to get clean water flowing in Iraq's second city of Basra and avert a humanitarian crisis as aid agencies waited anxiously for access to the south of the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said as many as 60 percent of the 2 million people in Basra had been without clean water for five days, prompting fears of epidemics.
Basra has been the scene of heavy fighting between U.S. and British forces against Iraqi forces and Tuesday there were reports of an uprising there against supporters of President Saddam Hussein.
Just to the south, a senior British commander said the port of Umm Qasr, through which much of the aid would flow, was "safe and open" but in Baghdad a top government official denied the town had fallen.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has expressed alarm at the situation in Basra, has called a meeting of U.N. aid agency chiefs in New York Wednesday to discuss Iraq's humanitarian situation.
The U.N. is preparing to launch an appeal for over $1 billion in aid for Iraq, where U.S.-led forces began a military assault last week to topple the government, which it accuses of having weapons of mass destruction.
But the U.N. is deadlocked over how and when to resume Iraq's oil-for-food program which is vital for the longer term needs of Iraqis. The program was suspended by Annan early last week before U.S.-led forces began their invasion.
The United States and its British allies are anxious to get aid rolling, but persistent pockets of resistance in the south and lack of full control over Umm Qasr, the country's only deep-water port, have delayed this.
"Umm Qasr is now safe and open and we are beginning to deliver aid, or we will be shortly," Brigadier Jim Dutton, commander of the British Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade, told journalists. He said he hoped the first ship carrying aid would arrive within the next couple of days.
Humanitarian agencies say they believe Iraqi families have enough food to last for several weeks and that their main concern is about supplies of fresh water, particularly in Basra.
"There are reports of people drinking river water that has sewage flowing into it. That is an alarming sign. For children, the elderly and the more vulnerable, it could be serious," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
WHO said the lack of clean water could lead to a rapid rise in respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases and measles, which are already major killers of children in Iraq.
"The last few days have raised real concern for the welfare of civilians caught in the conflict, especially children," said the head of the U.N. Children's Fund Carol Bellamy.
SAFETY GUARANTEES
The Swiss-based ICRC said a repair team had reached the Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant, which supplies over 60 percent of the city's water and has been out of action since a power failure Friday, after getting safety guarantees.
"We have a team there and we are hoping that they will be able to bring water to Basra," Notari said.
Notari said that other water treatment plants were able to supply only around 30 percent of Basra's needs, less than the 40 percent previously stated, and the quality was poor.
Daytime temperatures in Basra, which has a population of around two million, can soar toward 104 degrees at this time of year.
A spokeswoman for the U.N.'s New York-based Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Geneva that agencies might try to set up a humanitarian corridor from the south once it was safe to enter.
U.N. officials have said that once aid begins to arrive in Iraq, distribution should be left to humanitarian agencies, both U.N. and nongovernmental organizations.
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