|
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
IRAQ: Focus on power and water supplies
BASRA, 19 November 2003 (IRIN) - Despite a one-day power failure earlier this week in the southern city of Basra, power supplies appear almost normal in the country's second-largest city.
Projects to repair and renovate water pumping stations in Basra and the southern region as a whole are under way after a critical period until the end of September during which extensive looting served to destroy pumps, pipes and electrical wiring.
Maysam Husayn Wasfi, the technical director of the Southern General Company for Electricity Distribution (SGCED), told IRIN that after the four critical months after the end of the war to topple former President Saddam Hussein, people in Basra were now able to enjoy normal power supplies in their homes, unlike in the past when it was for only up to nine hours a day.
"People here suffered a lot in their houses, at work, schools, hospitals etc, and for some time, we were not able to guard or control all these lootings of the electricity lines," he said. Hoever, some 400 security guards had been trained to protect the lines, but SGCED was also seeking help from tribal forces, he added.
The electricity ministry in the capital, Baghdad, is aiming initially to generate about 6,000 MW towards meeting the country's need for 24-hour power, but has set a target of 10,000 MW by 2006.
Basra is home to many Iraqi tribes, which are very influential in the southern region, particularly following the end of the war and the toppling of Saddam. Some 1,000 men from the populous Al-Garamsha tribe have offered to help secure the power stations and lines.
According to Wasfi, the southern city of Amarah, which is also connected to Basra's main power station, now enjoys a good supply. However, the other two southern cities of Nasiriyah and Samawah, still suffer shortages.
Power outages remain one of the greatest challenges in Iraq. Before the war, power stations in the country were generating far below the demand, with Baghdad for a long time benefiting in having almost uninterrupted power because the regime was diverting to it most of what was available country-wide. As a result, the rest of the country had to make do with a three-hours-on-three-hours-off supply pattern.
Although the power situation has improved, water supplies and water pumping still constitute a major problem in Basra, particularly of drinking water.
A shop-owner in the city centre told IRIN that many people in the old part of the town had had no tap-water for the past five years except late at night when demand was low and the pressure rose. "We haven't heard of water-purification projects since the 1960s," he said. "Motors that can be used to pump the water are expensive," he added.
Sa’d Abd al-Karim, a resident of the Al-Buradiyah District in the eastern part of the city still has to potable water. "The pipes themselves are dirty and filthy, so we use the water for washing, but the amount of drinking water that comes through the tanks is not enough," he told IRIN. Abd al-Karim buys around 20 litres of water a day for around 350 dinars (about 15 US cents).
As residents in Basra explained, before Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, water from the Shatt al-Arab river used to be purified and good enough to drink. However, when Shi'ah separatists and opponents of the regime escaped into the southern marshes, Saddam decided to drain the marshes by building a canal to divert the water in them into Shatt al-Arab.
One of the water sellers in the Jaza’ir area of central Basra told IRIN that he was now selling less water than usual - between half and two-thirds of what he used to sell in the summer, which had been around 1.5 mt a day. He attributed the decline to the start of the winter and the use of refrigerators now that electricity supplies had been restored.
Iraq has two large rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which are the country's main water sources. But the lack of power to make the supply available and effect purification has made life difficult for millions.
Despite cases of sabotage, the water situation in Baghdad is said to have improved with some 80 percent of capacity restored.
In the case of Basra, with help from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), convoys of water trucks continue to reach the city from Kuwait and Iran, delivering water to homes, hospitals and health services, mainly in the outskirts, including the port of Umm Qasr, Safwan, and Zubayr.
According to the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), thousands of people in Basra will soon have access to fresh water after the Iraqi Water Board and British Army engineers complete two projects to improve supplies. The projects were in Hayy Al-Husayn and Al-Tunnamah, which together would ensure that more than 20,000 people would have access to fresh water, the CPA told IRIN in Basra.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Environment, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Human Rights
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
