A severe water contamination crisis that has hit Iraq, especially in Basra governorate, has raised fears of a cholera outbreak.
Minister of Health Adeela Hamoud announced during her last visit to Basra that 1,500 severe cases of diarrhea had been recorded, but there was no cholera in the region.
Meanwhile, Director-General of the Public Health Directorate in Basra Riad Abdul-Amir said that about 17,000 cases of colic and diarrhea were reported due to contaminated water over the past two weeks, warning that around 20 percent of those cases carried the symptoms of cholera.
"The hospitals in Basra receive about 1,500 such cases on a daily basis," Abdul-Amir said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged local authorities to address the water contamination issue and ensure sufficient water deliveries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Prime Minister directed the Defense and Transportation Ministries to ensure the safe transfer of drinking water to the province. He also asked the Ministry of Energy to provide fuel for water tankers heading to Basra.
The religious authority in Najaf and the Secretariat of Hussein Shrine in Karbala also addressed the issue and formed a crisis unit to help the people overcome the crisis.
"The Representative of Supreme Religious Authority, Sheikh Abdul-Mehdi El-Kerbelaey, held an extensive meeting with various officials of the Shrine, including those from the finance, maintenance, electricity and mechanisms departments, to discuss the formation of a crisis unit to save the people of the city of Basra," the media department of the Shrine said in a statement.
The statement pointed out that Kerbelaey ordered the members of the cell to visit Basra to proceed with the maintenance of desalination plants and street lights, in addition to providing the residents with suitable drinking water.
Kerbelaey said during the Friday sermon that despite all appeals to the government “for a temporary solution for water contamination in Basra, the efforts the government is making are still below the threshold for a temporary relief.”
The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights in Basra indicated that Abo al-Khasib General Hospital in Basra receives daily more than 400 people sickened by polluted water. A delegation of the Commission visited the hospital and met with dozens of citizens suffering from symptoms caused by contaminated water.
The Commission noted that Abo al-Khasib is the only hospital capable of treating such cases.
Sources in Basra told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Directorate of Education warned that cholera could spread among students at the start of the academic year due to polluted water in schools.
The sources confirmed that citizens staged a demonstration outside the Department of Health, protesting the absence of solutions to the crisis.
The Syndicate of Journalists in Basra also organized a protest, urging the central and local governments "not to make unrealistic promises and to take practical steps to address the crisis."
