Baghdad’s water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion

Matthew Schofield
McClatchy Newspapers
Thursday, March 19, 2009

BAGHDAD — The stench of human waste is enough to tell Falah abu Hasan that his drinking water is bad. His infant daughter Fatma’s continuous illnesses and his own constant nausea confirm it.

“We are the poor. No one cares if we get sick and die,” he said. “But someone should do something about the water. It is dirty. It brings disease.”

Everybody complains about the water in Baghdad , and few are willing to risk drinking it from the tap. Six years after the U.S. invaded Iraq , 36 percent of Baghdad’s drinking water is unsafe, according to the Iraqi Environment Ministry — in a good month. In a bad month, it’s 90 percent. Cholera broke out last summer, and officials fear another outbreak this year.

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“Even if the water is good today, no one would trust it,” grocer Hussein Jawad said. He said that about 40 percent of his business was selling bottled drinking water, crates of which he’s stacked 7 feet high on the sidewalk. “We’ve learned to be afraid.”

The irony of bad water is lost on few here. When the city was founded 1,200 years ago, it was named Baghdad al Zawhaa, ” Baghdad the Garden,” because water was plentiful. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers formed the boundaries of Mesopotamia and fed the fields in the cradle of civilization.

Baghdad still draws its water from the Tigris, but even that legendary source is problematic. President Jalal Talabani flew to Turkey this week to discuss the diminishing water flow, because Turkey has dammed the river. Syria and Iran have dammed its tributaries. 

Full story here.

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4 Responses to “Baghdad’s water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion”

1. bureaucracyneversolvesaproblem Says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

   One could reasonably consider that pure clean drinking water would be the first mandatory item on any governments to do list.

   So we ask ourselves: what is the purpose of government?

   Basic economy is:
   food
   clothing
   shelter

   everything else is a function of these three pillars.

   Now 85% of the planet’s surface is covered with water, and the knowledge of weather control is old technology, (see Space News). It should be an easy thing for everyone on the earth to have pure water in an unlimited supply.

   The fact that most of the people of the earth are forced to buy drinking water, the Europeans included, is absolute proof that the governments representing them are totally criminal in every aspect.

   That the poor people of Iraq are now forced to drink sewer contaminated water because of the direct actions of the American People through their democratically elected government bodes quite ill for everyone.

   In closing, was the water in Iraq better before the people were liberated from the previous regime?

2. Joe in JT Says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

   Can you say Halliburton and Dick Cheney “no bid contracts” for reconstruction of Iraq?

3. muymalgal Says:
   March 20th, 2009 at 2:53 am

   “they hate us cause we’re freeeeee!!!”

4. Wizard-of-OZ Says:
   March 20th, 2009 at 3:19 am

   America dont believe in “You break it, you buy it” policy.