Basra (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s southern province of Basra has recorded 17000 infection cases due to water contamination, its health official was quoted saying on Tuesday.

Riyad Abdul-Amir, head of the health department in Basra, told Almaaloma website that Basra hospitals have, so far, received more than 17000 cases of diarrhea abdominal distress due to water contamination.

Abdul-Amir warned of a “cholera outbreak as salinity rates continue to increase in the water unprocessed”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged local authorities on Monday to address the water contamination issue and to ensure sufficient water deliveries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Basra was one of several southern provinces which had seen wide-scale popular protests over poor public services last month, which developed into violent encounters with security forces.</s>Iraqi health officials say that a health crisis stemming from water pollution and a shortage of clean drinking water has worsened in recent days, as hospitals in the southern port city of Basra treat more than 1,000 cases of intestinal infections on a daily basis. The problem was exacerbated several months ago when Turkey cut back on water distributed to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

 

 A crowd of young men took to the streets on in the southern port city of Basra Tuesday, demanding the central government and Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi increase the quantity of clean drinking water allotted to their province. Abadi vowed to increase spending on infrastructure for the province during a visit to Basra in July.

A young man, whose friend was killed during a rally several weeks ago, broke down and sobbed over the protesters' inability to force Iraqi leaders to improve the condition of public services in Basra, especially the region's worn-out water infrastructure and insufficient quantities of drinking water allotted by the central government.

Some health officials in Basra warn that a cholera outbreak is possible due to water pollution and water-borne parasites that have made thousands of people sick in recent days. The director general of the Basra Health department, Riad Abdul Amir, told Al Hurra TV the situation continues to worsen.

He says more than 17,500 cases of intestinal ailments, resulting from contaminated drinking water, have been treated by Basra hospitals during the past two weeks, alone.

Abdul Amir says the problem stems from insufficient fresh water supplies coming into the city via canals and water pipes from the north.

"Salty water [which has infiltrated the water network]," he asserts, "is known to reduce the efficacy of chlorine used to treat and kill bacteria in drinking water," he said.

Safaa Kazem, a docotor who has been treating dozens of cases of intestinal problems and diarrhea in Basra's Sadr Teaching Hospital each day, says water from the city's supply is not safe to drink.

She says the degree of water sterilization is minimal and that Basra's water is very salty and has an extremely high level of microbes in it, along with a high degree of chemical pollution.

Basra Governor Assad al Edani told Al Hurra TV that his province has been suffering from numerous infrastructure problems for a long time.

He says the water network in Basra hasn't been updated in at least 30 years and the old pipes often break, mixing drinking water with sewage.

Edani says "not enough fresh water is arriving via the region's only canal from Thi Qar province to the north." He thinks a "strong current of fresh water will flush out salty water seeping into the water network from the sea."

Edani adds that the population of Basra has "more than doubled since the water network was last updated in the early 1990s."

Iraq's individual provinces have been fighting for water, amid a general shortage, since Turkey in early June severely curtailed the number of cubic meters of water it funnels into both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.</s>BASRA, Iraq: Iraqi Ahmed Dhafir hopes the miniature wooden ships he spends up to 40 days creating will recall the southern Iraqi city of Basra's proud naval heritage and heyday as the "Venice of the Middle East."

Dhafir, 34, uses traditional tools and methods learned from his father to model historic and modern vessels that have sailed the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which passes through the province of Basra and into the Gulf.

"The finest wood that I use is old teak from doors and frames of old houses," he said.

A single ship can sell for 250,000 to 1,250,000 Iraqi dinars (roughly US$210 to US$1,050) and measure up to 1.7 meters.

Basra's network of canals and waterways has earned it comparisons with Italy's Venice, and it is the port from which the fictional sailor Sinbad set sail.</s>Iraqi Ahmed Dhafir hopes the miniature wooden ships he spends up to 40 days creating will recall the southern Iraqi city of Basra’s proud naval heritage and heyday as the “Venice of the Middle East.”</s>The Borno State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia has disclosed that 1,068 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) has been recorded in 10 LGAs of Borno state .

He also comfirmed that there is no single case of death from Cholera in any LGA of the state so far, disputing earlier media reports that there was cholera out break in Borno State. He stressed that death from case of acute water diarrhea is different from case of death from cholera as earlier misconstrued and reported by some media.

Addressing journalists at a press conference yesterday in Maiduguri on sensitization of public on hygiene and sanitation to prevent water borne diseases. At the Public Health Emergency Center, Dr. Mshelia pointed out that technically, there are specific factors or Causes of death from acute water diarrhea or cholera. He stated that for diarrhea, it could be from sicknesses like HIV/AIDS, malaria fever, typhoid, food poison, etc of vomiting and passing of watery stool while cholera comes from contamination as a result of lack of clean water sources and good hygienic environment, not washing hands after going to toilet before eating, drinking unclean and unhygienic water from the streams, indiscriminate stooling or abandoned children's stool at homes by mothers and drinking of water from rivers or ponds without first boiling and filtering the water among other unhealthy sources .

Dr. Mshelia announced the contraction of diarrhea on Tuesday evening while briefing journalists. He attributed diarrhea and other water borne diseases to open “defecation and poor sanitary conditions” in Borno InternallyDisplaced Persons (IDPs) camps and communities.

“To prevent outbreaks of diarrhea and other water borne diseases, like cholera; there must be public awareness on personal hygiene and sanitation. They are critical in preventing such diseases that claimed 61 lives last August in the state,” he said.

On whether there was lose of lives, he said: “No one has died yet from AWD. Out of the 100 cases of diarrhea reported early this year, we had one or two cases of cholera at Baga Doro, Borno state.

He commended the protocols of reporting outbreaks of cholera; include taking samples to the laboratory for instant test.

He explained that the response team have to confirm that it is cholera, before reporting it to Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).</s>$100,000 has been secured from the State Government to prevent water supply contamination.

$100,000 has been secured from the State Government to prevent water supply contamination. Contributed

TWEED Shire Council has secured $100,000 from the State Government to prevent water supply contamination.

Lismore MP Thomas George said the funding came from the $1 billion Safe and Secure Water Program and would go towards a study to prevent salt water contamination of Tweed's water supply.

Mr George said the study would prevent events like last year's salt water contamination of the Bray Park Weir.

Following a King tide, Tweed Shire Council had to impose immediate water restrictions as a precautionary measure and the North Coast Public Health unit was brought in to oversee the situation.

"Everyone in NSW deserves access to reliable and high-quality water and that's why I am delighted to announce this new funding for a study that will ensure clean, fresh and pure water for the communities of the district,” Mr George said.

"This funding from the Government's $1 billion Safe & Secure Water Program shows we are getting on with the job of ensuring good quality water in and around the Tweed.”

Tweed Shire Council General Manager Troy Green welcomed the State Government's contribution to the project.

"Council will utilise funds to ensure that a variety of solutions are considered and scoped to address salt water ingress into the weir,” he said.

This funding is important to ensure a secure potable water supply and continuity of services for business.”

NSW Regional Water minister Niall Blair said the program prioritised key water infrastructure projects across the state.

"Whether it's a new water treatment plant or a water quality study our Safe & Secure Water Program is making a real difference to local communities throughout NSW,” he said.

The Safe and Secure Water Program is a $1 billion regional infrastructure co-funding program established in 2017 under the NSW Government's Restart NSW Fund.</s>BAGHDAD — Protesters poured into the streets and picketed oil fields in southern Iraq amid growing discontent over the government’s failure to combat unemployment, provide drinkable water or guarantee a steady electricity supply to power the air conditioning needed to survive the country’s grueling August heat.

Having largely eliminated the threat of Islamic State and cooled — for now — separatist pressures in the Kurdish enclave in the north, the central government ironically finds the greatest challenge to its authority from the Shiite-dominated south, where the failure to provide basic services, infrastructure and economic development have many fuming.

“We closed the main roads leading to the [al-Qurna] gas field as a way to put pressure on the government because the provincial council did not keep their promise to negotiate with us after the police killed a student here,” said Ali Taha, 25, a trainee at Petroleum Institute in the southern port city of Basra.

Police have fired into demonstrations, killing protesters and further exacerbating tensions. Fourteen demonstrators have been killed and 650 injured since July, according to the Baghdad-based Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights.

Passions have grown so heated that there is talk of creating an autonomous region in the oil-rich south. Many believe some of the profits generated by the governate are being squandered or stolen in the capital.

Walid al-Kitan, head of the Basra Provincial Council, announced a month ago that three-fifths of the 25 members of the local government had signed a petition to establish an independent region of Basra. Basra representatives in the national parliament vowed over the weekend to vote against any new coalition government unless the south’s economic and social grievances are addressed.

Almost half of Iraq’s population is younger than 19, and the youth unemployment rate is 18 percent, according to government statistics. Authorities have arrested hundreds but released most of them if they signed guarantees to stay away from protests, the observatory said.

Those pledges will not stop other Iraqi youths from joining the unrest, said Murtadha Ali, a 22-year-old student at the Basra Technical Institute.

“The atmosphere is desperate,” said Mr. Ali. “There are no less than 400,000 unemployed people in this city of 2 million. These are people who can’t pay for bottled water, which is a necessity here since the tap water is filled with dark, salty sediments.”

The protests continued as politicians in Baghdad struggled to assemble a ruling coalition while waiting for the Supreme Court to ratify a recount from May’s parliamentary elections. The two largest Shiite-based parties finished in the top two positions, adding to the pressure on Baghdad to deliver for its political base.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a phone call with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, urged Iraqi politicians to form a moderate government. Mr. al-Abadi’s party came in third in the vote.

“Secretary Pompeo emphasized the importance of forming a moderate Iraqi government, pursuant to the constitutional timeline, that is responsive to the expectations of the Iraqi people,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Mr. al-Abadi’s Victory Alliance gained only 42 seats in an Independent High Electoral Commission recount released last week. The recount found that the bloc allied with nationalist Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr led in the polls but won only 54 seats, too few to form a government without partners in the 329-member parliament.

The Conquest Alliance — a more militant Shiite group led by pro-Iranian paramilitary chiefs — came in second with 47 seats. That party has lost popularity after militias under its control were charged with shooting civilians in protests.

After Iran cut off electric supplies to Iraq in early July in a dispute over power rates, some blamed Tehran for creating the chaos that is destabilizing the country and causing trouble for U.S.-backed Mr. al-Abadi, a moderate Shiite who has tried to reach out to the Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

But protesters in southern Iraq insist they were not doing the bidding of the mullahs in Iran. Instead, they said, corruption and intrigue have ruined Iraqi politics and sent them into the streets in protest.

“The religious party leaders are just puppets of the Iranians,” said 39-year-old Baghdad protester Omar Zeyad Sami. “This is a spontaneous movement that comes after 15 years of death, misery and corruption. The people have come out to reject the dominating political mafias. I think most of the demands could be met if the politicians stopped stealing.”

The global watchdog group Transparency International said Iraq’s already low ranking has fallen three places this year in its global Corruption Perceptions Index. Out of a total of 180 countries, Iraq came in at No. 169, putting it behind such countries as Turkmenistan, Angola and Eritrea.

In Najaf, a pilgrimage city and center of Shiite spirituality, protesters were outraged over the ways “religious” politicians enriched themselves at the public trough.

Nearly $72 million “disappeared from the project to improve gas and oil production at the state-owned Najaf Refinery,” said Talib Kadhim al-Zayadi, a 57-year-old local lawyer. “We want this outrage investigated, and we want the politicians to give the buildings their parties took over to be used as schools and health centers.”

The Najaf airport, with 65 scheduled flights weekly to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, has become a flashpoint for demonstrations. Protesters burned images of the Iranian leaders after the power cuts in July.

During a July 13 protest, police killed a 25-year-old demonstrator at the airport entrance with live ammunition and a 19-year-old died of suffocation after he was exposed to tear gas.

“Each time we go to protest, we face either psychological or physical suffering,” said Ali Chasib, a 27-year-old unemployed university graduate from Sadr City, a working-class Baghdad suburb with more than 1 million residents. “First, they try to break up the demonstrations with arrests, then they try to disperse us with false promises, and finally they use tear gas.”

He saw no reason to stop protesting.

“This generation insists on change and will be heard even if we have to die to end the corruption,” Mr. Chasib said.</s>Borno State Government on Tuesday said there has been no case of a cholera outbreak in the state.

The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Haruna Mshelia, who addressed a press conference on the cholera epidemic in the state, said all measures have been put in place to ensure there was no outbreak of the disease.

He recalled that there was 61 deaths as a result of cholera outbreak in the state in 2017, expressing delight that there has not been any clinical proven cholera outbreak in the year 2018.

He said though there have been 1068 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea recorded in ten local government areas of the state since the commencement of the rainy season in May till date, the situation has not degenerated to cholera.

He said, “Around this time every year, we have cases of acute watery diarrhoea, caused by bacteria passed through faeces, it is common in the rural areas, due to open defecation.”

He said that food poisoning, drinking unhygienic water (without boiling), could also be responsible for AWD.

He added that “We prepare every time for this, we train officials for rapid response, there is rapid response team. We have them at the local government level and at the state level; those at the state are more technically competent.”</s>Lawmakers representing Basra province say they will vote against any attempts to form a new government unless a plan to resolve Basra’s civic problems is drafted. Recent protests that began in the province spread to other areas of Iraq. The demonstrators wanted the government to address a lack of jobs, corruption, and infrastructure issues. The last problem has led to thousands of people in Basra becoming sick after drinking contaminated water in recent days. The province provides 80 percent of Iraq’s oil revenue, but many residents are living in poverty.

At least 27 people were killed, and 12 were wounded in recent violence:

A bomb near Tuz Khormato killed two militiamen and wounded two more. A dead body was found in a car.

In Amerli, a bomb killed a militiaman and wounded two more.

A soldier was shot dead in Mandali by militants disguised as security personnel.

One civilian was killed in a blast in Mansouriya.

Three people were wounded in a blast in Baghdad.

In Kirkuk, a man was shot and wounded.

Thirteen militants were killed during an operation in Hammam al-Alil.

Turkey announced the deaths of three guerrillas belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) during airstrikes in Avasin-Basyan in northern Iraq.
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Health officials state that the Iraqi city of Basra has recorded 17,000 infection cases due to water contamination. A cholera outbreak is feared as salinity rates continue to increase in the unprocessed water.