Baghdad drowning in sewage: Iraqi official

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless, an Iraqi official said on Sunday in a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion.

One of three sewage treatment plants is out of commission, one is working at stuttering capacity while a pipe blockage in the third means sewage is forming a foul lake so large it can be seen "as a big black spot on Google Earth," said Tahseen Sheikhly, civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan.

Sheikhly told a news conference in the capital that water pipes, where they exist, are so old that it is not possible to pump water at a sufficient rate to meet demands -- leaving many neighbourhoods parched.

A sharp deficit of 3,000 megawatts of electricity adds to the woes of residents, who are forced to rely on neighborhood generators to light up their lives and heat their homes.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080203/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestservices

---

Imagine if you lived in a city that had ten more years to go before it had 24 hour a day electrical service. It's difficult for most of us to fathom.

[yourout]

1. Just like Washington.

[Baby Snooks]

14. The cesspool of America....

Most of the sewage we are drowning in seems to be the overflow from the main cesspool in America which is also known as the Congress.

The only candidate who opposed the "liberation" of Iraq is Barack Obama and while I have great concern with regard to his views on equality for all Americans just the same he seems to be the only hope for America and for Iraq and for the world.

We have plunged Iraq into the Dark Ages as a result of the policies of the Bushes. Policies that were continued by one Clinton and will be continued by another. And yet my fear is that is exactly what we will see in 2009.

The expression "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" applies to both the Bushes and the Clintons.

[EFerrari]

2. Bush has shown himself to be less competent than Saddam. n/t

[RedSock]

4. the sweet smell of freedom

less competent?

this is exactly what the cheney cabal wanted.

they are highly competent. they are meeting their goals quite rapidly.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. It takes a village to ... no, wait, that's wrong.

We must destroy this village to save it. Ah, that's the one.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. The smell of decay is far-reaching...

Those poor people. Damn! :mad:

[PearliePoo2]

6. And this is costing how much

In lives and treasure every day?
And the criminal bastards say they would do it all again.
* and company have utterly destroyed a nation. Flowers in the streets indeed.
Turds and disease are in the streets, you murderous lying rat-fuckers.

[tabasco]

7. Maybe that's what they mean when they say "the surge is working."

Iraq is bloody stinking chaos but the surge is working because we told the troops to stay on-post.

As long as the oil is secure, nobody in the Bush cabal is concerned.

[PDittie]

8. The Surge is Working!

Nobody could have predicted it was going to be a surge of sewage, though.

[mwb970]

9. Baghdad and New Orleans.

Both on bush's watch.

[pattmarty]

10. Just check out New Orleans, La.

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. So now what? Typhoid and cholera for all Iraqis and our servicemen?

Dammit!

[Karenina]

16. If they're lucky. If not

the depleted uranium poisoning will insure a slow, painful death.

[flashl]

19. Yes ...

Iraq will suffer from cholera for two years -govt

BAGHDAD, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Iraq will continue to suffer from cholera for the next two years until projects for providing sanitised water and a new sewage system are built, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Since there is a defect in the infrastructure in providing sanitised water and in sewage, the problem of cholera will stay deep rooted," Adel Abdullah, general inspector in the Health Ministry, told a news conference.

"Within two years there are ambitious projects to provide all Baghdad's districts with sanitised water in sufficient quantities and sewage projects. When these projects are complete, cholera will become history."

Iraq has been hit by a cholera outbreak this year, focused mainly on the north but lately spreading to the capital Baghdad.

Reuters

[flashl]

20. Dupe.

[tanyev]

12. Good thing they've got democracy now, or they'd really be screwed.

:sarcasm:

[IndyOp]

13. Kick. (n/t)

[Judi Lynn]

15. Republican obsession with using Presidential power is like joy-riding.

They destroy absolutely everything in their paths, cause unbearable suffering, and expect someone else to pay for it.

It's a shame life has such possibilities it it which allow complete scum to seize power and make the world a living hell for others with no recourse.

He slaughtered so many Iraqiis who have NOTHING to do with American national security, so many Americans trying to do their jobs, and he has turned Iraq into an absolute nightmare which intensifies every day, while these smug, ugly Republican politicians and assorted spokespeople sneer and smirk at us claiming THEY are all the real patriots, and "good guys" in this country.

They obviously aren't wholesome enough to handle power. They are truly unclean themselves. You only have to see the results of their time in the driver's seat.

[Javaman]

17. So basically we have turned Iraq into a mushroom...

keep them in the dark and cover them with shit.

lovely.

[LynnTheDem]

18. Wait until next month when the people of Iraq begin to really starve to death.

When the US Iraq "government" cuts off food vouchers, the only thing that feeds 40% of the population of Iraq.

Baghdad won't be just drowning in sewage.

[libodem]

21. I'm astounded

that the Cholera epidemic is not worse. Those poor people. No wonder we've killed a million civilians. They are likely better off dead. I think the only reason America has not gone crazy over this is because there is no draft. We'd be out in the streets protesting, over the horrors of this war, if young Republicans were being drafted, to go stand in that sewage. Just my take.