IRAQ-CONFLICT: Main water station in Baghdad bombed, ICRC says

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Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

BAGHDAD, Apr 9 2003 (IPS) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Wednesday a main water pumping station in Baghdad was bombed, severing water supplies to many Iraqis in the north of the city.

The water supply for Baghdad is becoming an issue of major concern after the Qanat raw water pumping station in the north of the city was bombed and stopped functioning.

"A large segment of one of the poorest suburbs of Baghdad is going to go without water. This is civilian infrastructure and it should be spared at all costs or we are really going to face a major problem," said ICRC spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin.

Spokeswoman Nada Doumani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA Wednesday the precarious security situation kept ICRC staff from visiting Baghdad’s overrun hospitals.

"Today the situation is unpredictable. We cannot visit hospitals because it is very risky to move in the capital," Doumani told DPA.

Many of the ICRC’s Iraqi staff also were not able to come to work.

According to the Iraqi authorities, all water treatment works and sewage stations now rely solely on back-up generators because the normal power supply has been reduced, the ICRC said. They also report that a number of water treatment works and sewage pumping stations in eastern and southern Baghdad have shut down.

In the area of Saddam City, the flow of tap water has been cut by half, the ICRC said.

Baghdad’s hospitals are reported to be overwhelmed by the inflow of war-wounded patients, many unable to have needed surgeries because of a lack of power, equipment, and room.

The ICRC delivered surgical assistance to the Medical City hospital complex with 650 beds on Tuesday. The complex has neither water nor power, and only six out of 27 operating theatres could still be used. ICRC engineers are trying to restore the water supply.

On Tuesday, the ICRC also visited the Ibn Nafis hospital, where it saw three injured foreign journalists who were being treated there.

The ICRC said it has lost count of civilian casualties.

An international anti-war consortium led by Marc Herold, an associate professor of economic development and international affairs at the University of New Hampshire in the US, estimated Wednesday between 961 and 1,139 civilians have been killed since the war began on March 20, based on news reports from Iraq.

Estimates from the Iraqi government say 1,200 civilians have been killed, and more than 5,000 wounded.