Baghdad residents are at risk of waterborne diseases after the city’s sewerage system collapsed following four days of heavy rain, the country’s health ministry has warned.

Dr Abdul-Rahman Adil Ali of the Baghdad Health Directorate warned of dire consequences. "All residents are threatened with gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhoea and hepatitis. In some of Baghdad's poor neighbourhoods, people drink water which is mixed with sewage.”

Corruption and the relentless violence that engulfed Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003 have compounded the problems of rebuilding shattered infrastructure.

Hatam Jaafar al-Nuaimi, from the environmentalist NGO Green Iraq, said: “Protecting the environment and the health of the residents is not less important than security.”

However, Mowafaq Kittan, from the Ministry of Municipality and Public Works said that 600 of their workers had been killed in the past nine months. “We can’t do our job because of the insurgents’ attacks against our employees. The insurgents are targeting municipal workers and their cars in the streets.”

Source:Irin News, 15 Jan 2007

Tags: emergencies, on-site sanitation, water-related diseases