Six Years After the U.S. Invaded Iraq, Baghdad's Drinking Water is Still Unsafe

Posted by Christine Welter Jul 27, 2009

"Clean water would be one of the biggest improvements in quality of life in Iraq", says Ihsan Jaafar, Iraq's director of public health. Everyone complains about the water in Baghdad, and few are willing to drink it from the tap. According to the Iraqi Environment Ministry 36 percent of Baghdad's drinking water is unsafe — in a good month. In a bad month, it's 90 percent. Officials are worried about cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis and other diseases.

Thousands of displaced people fled to Baghdad during the war and built temporary homes in abandoned government offices. "They dug down and tapped city pipes, often using pumps to find water supplies. As a result, 6 million people use Baghdad water daily, but only 5 million of them use it legally."

The city has a 10-year, $6 billion plan to fix the problem, which involves shutting down the squatters' settlements. However, there's fear that shutting down the settlements would force families onto the street and reignite sectarian fighting; the settlements are a recruiting ground for Shiite Muslim militias.

So step one in the repairs for the city water department is putting together a security force.

"We fight, as if we were in the army, to bring people clean water and take away sewage," a city spokesman says.

(Matthew Schofield for McClatchy Newspapers)

Restoring Water and Sanitation Services in Iraq