No Power, No Water
Residents frustrated by lack of clean water, electricity in Iraq.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 23, 2007 — -- Squeezing water from the desert has always been tough. This year in Baghdad, it's tougher than ever as power shortages hamper the ability to distribute water, which is taking a toll on the health of the children in this Iraqi city.
Dr. Nidhal Kadhum, a pediatrician at Al-Baladi Hospital in Sadr City, said kids are most vulnerable to water-borne illness, and this year she has seen her case load double.
"We've seen more diarrhea and severe cases of dysentery. Water contamination also causes typhoid fever and hepatitis," she explained.
Across town at Baghdad's Al-Ilwaiyah Pediatric Hospital, Dr. Tareef Fadhil is also dealing with a ward filled with sick kids. He said clean water would go a long way toward doing away with many of the diseases he is seeing.
"This disease primarily was in the rural areas in the past because they used water from the river," he said, "but now these diseases are in the cities because the water supply is not healthy."
Baghdad's water woes have worsened along with the security situation. Water and sewer pipes are crumbling and that contributes to low water pressure and contamination.
It's not easy to fix the pipes, because with security so bad even the hard, dirty and lowly work of plumbing can make one a target. The United Nations said 600 municipal workers, those who fix water and sewage systems, have been killed across Iraq over the last 12 to 18 months.
The biggest impediment to water flowing from faucets is the ongoing problem of electricity. It has been five summers since the U.S. invasion, and Baghdad residents are still lucky to get a few hours of electricity a day.
The lack of electricity produces fury in Baghdad residents, particularly when the mercury can climb as high as 130 degrees, sometimes higher.
This year, the double whammy of little power and a worsening water supply has Iraqis boiling.
"We are going back," said Ali Issa. "The Arab and Gulf countries are developing but we are going back. We depend on well water like we are living in a desert back in the 1920s and 1800s."
