Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion

[New Dawn]

Source: McClatchy

By Matthew Schofield, McClatchy Newspapers Matthew Schofield, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Wed Mar 18, 4:38 pm ET

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.

"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."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090318/wl_mcclatchy/3191674

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This is what the Neocons did to Iraq (besides torturing and murdering 1.4 million of it citizens and displacing millions more). There needs to be some war crime tribunals.

[Botany]

1. and now we are starting year #7 in Iraq

:cry:

[babylonsister]

2. I want those who caused this to suffer,

but I wish we could help the Iraqis more to have a better life. We destroyed so much.

[givemebackmycountry]

3. We never gave a rats ass what happened to the common Iraqi citizen...

To the average dumb-ass 'mericun the Iraqi people are all "terrists" and life is SO much better for them now that Bush has leveled their country and killed or drove Iraqis out of their homes and separated them from their families.

Trillions of dollars and 7 years later and we haven't fixed a goddamn thing that didn't have to do with Iraqi oil.

Bush should have been in handcuffs years ago for the pain and suffering he has needlessly caused these people.

[valerief]

4. The powerful never give a rat's ass about the common man. nt

[Psephos]

5. They've never tasted L.A.'s water or they wouldn't be complaining n/t

[No Elephants]

7. My son lives in L.A. He is not ill from the water. Maybe there's no comparison.

[Tempest]

10. When was the last outbreak of cholera in L.A.?

Or typhoid, caused by a lack of sanitation because there's no clean water in Iraq?

International doctors in Iraq have seen a huge increase in diseases in children because of the water systems that were intentionally destroyed by the U.S. military.


Comments like yours are just plain stupid.

[Psephos]

12. umm, that was a joke

:eyes:

[Tempest]

13. And we were supposed to know that how?

Especially after the one DUer who said school lunch programs were a waste of money and was serious about it.

That's what emoticons are for.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Yet it only took Saddam Hussein 90 days to restore water & electricity.

"Paper tiger" R US(A).

[shadowknows69]

8. Genocide in slow motion

Why heard people into gas chambers, too labor intensive, just cut them off from anything healthy and let cruel nature take it's course.

[roseBudd]

9. DUers can thank a newspaper for this information

[Tempest]

11. The information has been well known before this article

It's been discussed on the Internet for several years now.

In fact, Commondreams.com has been in the forefront of reporting the water situation in Iraq. They've been reporting on it since 2004 when they provided evidence the military of intentionally targeting Iraq's water system.

[roseBudd]

14. You mean Common Dreams had been parasitizing newspapers who are reporting on Iraq

McClatchy Newspapers
Iraq Still Thirsting For Water That's Safe to Drink

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/04-5

Sunday Herald (Scotland)
Allies Deliberately Poisoned Iraq Public Water Supply In Gulf War

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/091700-01.htm

Reuters
Drought Threatens Peace in Iraq's Marsh Eden

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/03-2

The Independent/UK
Corruption Blamed As Cholera Rips Through Iraq

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/10-5


Inter Press Service
Singapore and Iraq - Contrasts in Water Management

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/18/3259

[Aristus]

15. Who needs drinkable water when they've got all that freedom and democracy we gave 'em?...

:sarcasm:

Sorry, Iraq; if you want to be like the United States, then you're going to have to get used to all those gun-crazed mass murderers on your streets, the crazed religious fanatics on your televisions, the lack of proper, affordable health care, the worsening shortage of affordable housing, the growing problems with drinking water, electricity, civil services, lack of job opportunities...

[daleo]

16. Neo-cons are still drinking this water. n/t