Water Offers Deadly Relief in a Blistering Iraqi Slum

[cjbuchanan]

BAGHDAD — The price of bicycle pumps has more than quadrupled in Sadr City, for reasons that have nothing to do with cycling. Residents of Baghdad's worst slum use them to coax water from the district's battered supply lines. It's either that or use their mouths as though they're siphoning gas.

But there's a problem — the water is making them sick.

Typhoid and hepatitis E are running rampant through Sadr City this summer, as residents rely heavily on a sewage-tainted water supply to endure temperatures of 115 degrees and up. The outbreak has strained local healthcare facilities and left Health Ministry officials able to only guess at the scope of the problem.
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more at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/latimests/20040804/ts_latimes/wateroffersdeadlyreliefinablisteringiraqislum


As the article states, some of this happens every year but this year it is worse due to all the looting that happened. Is this the way to win hearts and minds? How can they trust us or their new government if they can't even get safe water?