WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Filthy Iraqi drinking water raises cholera fears
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-02 16:58 The US Embassy official said she has seen black sewage water gushing into the Tigris from a giant pipeline during an aerial tour.
Farmers in Baghdad's northern districts of Azamiyah and Istiqlal, just a few miles from the Tigris, are forced to use sewage water to irrigate crops, the US military said. The Tigris, which cuts through the heart of the capital and provides most of its drinking water, runs brownish green in the summer. But it still attracts bathers seeking to escape the scorching heat. "The water smells like dead fish," Giya Nouri, a 40-year-old construction worker, said as he swam with his two young sons. "When I was a kid, it was blue and clean." But Nouri shrugged his shoulders when asked about the potential health risks. "We got used to it," he said. So far there has been no outbreak of waterborne diseases in Baghdad. Last year in Iraq, the World Health Organization confirmed more than 3,300 cases of cholera, a gastrointestinal disease typically spread by contaminated water, and at least 14 deaths from the acute and rapid dehydration it causes. The hardest hit areas were in northern Iraq. Dr. Nagesh Kumar, a water expert in India, said Iraq's current drought "will make the water contamination situation worse" by drying up wells and lowering river levels. In the capital, the Tigris is at its lowest level since 2001. Reeds stick up from the water on each bank. |
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