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Mercy Corps - USA
Website: http://www.mercycorps.org
By Cassandra Nelson
Source: Reuters AlertNet
http://www.alertnet.org/
Thu May 22, 2003

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After the sanctions, the bombs and the looting, the people of Iraq are tasting the sweetness of freedom. But they are also swallowing the bitter pill of trying to move-on in a land without adequate food, water, electricity, healthcare and even the most basic services.

The water supply system is one of the most critical issues facing the country. Years of under investment and two wars had already left the water system in a bad state. Now, as a result of the latest conflict, the electricity supply that powers the water system has been seriously disrupted, fuel supply has been erratic, and poor security has prevented local staff from maintaining and repairing the fragile system that remained. Looting left many cities without pumps, generators or vehicles to access the water system.

"Prior to the war, the system was barely running but the people were getting by somehow," says Peter Sweetnam, Mercy Corps Emergency Program Officer working in northern Iraq. "Now, the system is on the verge of a catastrophic breakdown."

The implications for the health and nutrition of the local people are extremely worrisome. The lack of clean drinking water is striking Iraq's most vulnerable population - its children. Poor water and sanitation leads to diarrhea, and then to dehydration and malnutrition, and possibly death. Already cases of cholera and a dramatic rise in diarrhea are being reported throughout the country.

In northern Iraq, the situation is a sad paradox. It is a region endowed with natural water resources, but years of systematic neglect by Saddam's regime of the ethnic Kurdish people living there, coupled with the recent fighting and looting, has left the local population without access to adequate clean drinking water.

Mercy Corps began emergency operations to restore the failing water system in northern Iraq just two days after the conflict ended. Now, with programs ongoing in the northern towns of Kirkuk and Khanaqeen, Mercy Corps is working to ensure that over half of a million local residents have access to drinking water.

"Our goal is to build up capacity and to secure the existing water system to prevent catastrophic failure," says Sweetnam. "If the pump breaks now, the entire city will not have water."

Mercy Corps has already repaired the back-up water pump in Khanaqeen, and with funding from the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), is working to shore-up the existing local water department and systems.

According to Sweetnam, the water treatment plant in Khanaqeeen is currently running at 50 percent of its potential. The local authorities do not currently have the funds to provide for short-term maintenance requirements. Power to run the plant comes only from a generator, as there is no power grid connection, and the pre-war stockpile of fuel for the generator is rapidly running out.

To resolve these emergency needs, Mercy Corps is providing tools and spare parts to repair and maintain the Khanaqeen water treatment plant, as well as fuel and parts for generators and providing transportation for maintenance teams to get to work.

Kirkuk, a city of 500,000 residents, experienced a massive wave of looting after the war that left the water system and most basic services in shambles. The local Directorate of Water and Sewerage lost most of its vehicles, water-testing laboratories were looted, and almost all the department’s equipment was either stolen or vandalized. This destruction left Kirkuk, a major city, without any way to carry out bacteriological testing of its water supply and posed a grave risk for the health of the local people.

Mercy Corps has met the emergency needs of Kirkuk by providing basic water test equipment to monitor the water-quality, in addition to providing vehicles to transport local water department staffers to work and out to locations to collect water samples and inspect the water system.

"These initial interventions are only the beginning," according to Sweetnam. "We are taking emergency measures to ensure clean drinking water is available to the people immediately. In the longer term the laboratory will have to be fully re-equipped in order to function at an acceptable level."

Cassandra Nelson is an Information Officer for Mercy Corps in Kuwait and Iraq.

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Direct Link:
--http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/105353633711.htm

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