Water shortage threatens two million people in southern Iraq

[ensho]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/26/water-shortage-threat-iraq


Electricity supply to Nasiriyah has dropped by 50% because of falling levels of Euphrates river


A water shortage described as the most critical since the earliest days of Iraq's civilisation is threatening to leave up to 2 million people in the south of the country without electricity and almost as many without drinking water.

An already meagre supply of electricity to Iraq's fourth-largest city of Nasiriyah has fallen by 50% during the last three weeks because of the rapidly falling levels of the Euphrates river, which has only two of four power-generating turbines left working.

If, as predicted, the river falls by a further 20cm during the next fortnight, engineers say the remaining two turbines will also close down, forcing a total blackout in the city.

Down river, where the Euphrates spills out into the Shatt al-Arab waterway at the north-eastern corner of the Persian Gulf, the lack of fresh water has raised salinity levels so high that two towns, of about 3,000 people, on the northern edge of Basra have this week evacuated. "We can no longer drink this water," said one local woman from the village of al-Fal. "Our animals are all dead and many people here are diseased."
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River wars

Nile Nine Nile basin countries are in dispute over water-sharing. Countries including Uganda and Rwanda are attempting to overrule a 1959 treaty that restricted building on the river without Egypt's consent. Egypt is reliant on the volume of water it currently receives.

Euphrates Iraq and Syria oppose the building of dams on the river by Turkey. Iraq is reliant on the river for irrigation, and damming upriver seriously affects water flow.

Jordan Israel and Palestine share a water aquifer along the West Bank, but Palestinians only have access to one fifth of the water held there. They are also in dispute over the river Jordan, with Israel claiming 90% control.

Indus Pakistan is in dispute with India over the Indus river that supplies water to millions. Reservoirs and dams have caused water shortages in downstream areas, such as Karachi. A presidential decision to provide more water to the population in Sindh by closing the Tarbela Dam also caused outrage in neighbouring Punjab, whose water was being diverted.
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[drm604]

1. This is huge

but my teevee machine doesn't seem to know about it. :shrug:

[ensho]

2. kicking back to pg. 1

nt