In this time of war
As the US-UK invasion of Iraq enters its third week, relief organisations are expecting a growing humanitarian disaster in the war-torn country, reports Rasha Saad
Fourteen days after the American- Anglo invasion, the humanitarian status of Iraq is already alarming. Twelve years of sanctions and the third war in 20 years have left Iraqis with little capacity to endure the effects of a massive military conflict.
"The whole situation in Iraq was very precarious before the start of this war and you can imagine that the new conflict can make it more precarious," Nada Doumani, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Al-Ahram Weekly from her office in Geneva.
With the fierce bombing of Iraqi cities and an increase in the number of injured civilians and destroyed infrastructure, ICRC officials cautioned that more efforts are needed to tackle the humanitarian crisis.
ICRC, one of the few organisations with international staff present in the country, is focussing on providing water and medical care to those wounded in the war.
Hospitals in Baghdad are coping with the increasing demands of treating wounded civilians, said Doumani. However, she said, ICRC is worried that people who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma may not be able to receive adequate medical care.
"These people are lacking the special diet and medical treatment they need." She added that "in this time of war, there are fewer hospitals which are ready for these patients as more and more hospital beds are being occupied by war injured people."
Doumani said that the western areas of Baghdad have been without electricity since last Thursday, 27 March, and that this has created a problem in water treatment plants.
In Basra, about half of the 1.2 million inhabitants are still suffering since the water and electricity supplies to the country's second largest city were cut off on Friday, March 22, for more than two days. ICRC said that electricity cables powering the Wafa Al-Quaid water station had been destroyed. "So far our engineers, with the assistance of Iraqi technicians, have managed to reconnect the main water treatment plant to three [out of six] back up generators and about 60 per cent of the needs of Basra are covered," said Doumani.
However, approximately 400,000 people remain at risk, with repair work impossible under present conditions. Lack of clean drinking water increases the risk of diarrhea, particularly in children. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Basra could face a cholera outbreak if residents are forced to continue drinking polluted water from rivers or streams.
While Doumani acknowledged that Basra is in a critical position because the city is cut off from the rest of the country and it is difficult to bring in food or aid, she said that ICRC is also concerned about the deteriorating situation south of Basra in places such as Safwan and Zubair.
UNICEF has echoed concerns about the situation in Iraq. This week it appealed for $166 million to support urgent humanitarian aid for the children and women most at risk from the war. The UNICEF appeal is part of a broader humanitarian appeal launched by the UN. The UN is requesting $2.1 billion to provide life-saving humanitarian support over the next six months.
According to UNICEF, even before the war began Iraq had one of the world's worst child mortality rates, with one in eight children dying before the age of five.
"Our relief effort in Iraq could well become the largest and most complex UNICEF has ever undertaken," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported on the humanitarian disaster in northern Iraq. An estimated 300,000 to 450,000 people have fled their homes in northern Iraq. These newly displaced Iraqis join the ranks of some 800,000 people who were already displaced by previous conflicts in the north. Many of the new arrivals have sought shelter with relatives and friends in the countryside, while others have fled to make-shift camps in the mountainous region north of Arbil.
According to a HRW report, the displaced people now arriving in Arbil have exceeded the assistance capacities of local Kurdish authorities. The report says that "the authorities have no means to provide adequate housing, food, medical and sanitary facilities for the internally displaced...any further...displacement within the Kurdish region will create a humanitarian disaster."
Hania Mufti, HRW representative for the Middle East, criticised the UN for having withdrawn humanitarian workers from Iraqi Kurdistan on the eve of the war.
Describing the deteriorating conditions of hundreds of displaced Kurds who are sleeping under tents or in schools in the Suran area bordering Iran, she told AFP that "these displaced people do not have what they need to live or to protect themselves from the cold...They are living in very difficult conditions."
