Humanitarian crisis begins in Basra

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 24, 2003 16:25 by Maubere

The Red Cross/Crescent has said that electricity is down in Basra and that the water system has been off for the past 3 days. Basra has the same population as Dublin, 1.1 million. Mike Goodhand from the Red Cross said on Sky News that the main pumping station in Basra has failed and that alternative sources can only provide enough water for 40% of the population.

The Red Cross has said that electricity is down in Basra and that the water system is off. They have told this to Koffi Annan who has just said on Sky News humanitarian aid for Basra is imperative. Mike Goodhand from the Red Cross said that the main pumping station in Basra has failed and that alternative sources can only provide enough water for 40% of the population. No information is available as to why the electricity has failed. This will lead to a humanitarian disaster, people can only survive for 4 days without water, they will have to resort to drinking dirty water. This will mean thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of people will get water borne disease and die, young children and older peole are especially vulnerable.
A British Army spokesman said thay want to bring humanitarian aid into Basra but they cant because the Iraqi army and paramilitaries are in control of the town. They are not going to invade the city, they want the Shias in Basra to rise up and take control of the city themselves however most Shias are suspicious of the US/UK because they were stabbed in the back when they rebelled in 1991. The US allowed Saddam to kill 200,000 Shias in the area because they didn't want the Shias (60% of the population) to control the country, so much for democracy. The spokesman also said that they need to secure the town of Umm Quasrr on the Gulf Coast before they can bring in aid, however Sky News military analyst, Francis Jeffers said on Saturday that the Port in Umm Quasrr is not great and that it silts up alot, he thought that the US was going to use the superior ports in Kuwait for military equipment and then shove all the aid agencies into Umm Quasrr. The US could allow aid to go overland through Kuwait but has chosen not to because this might interfere with their military plans.