Heat Likely to Fuel Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq
Sat March 29, 2003 10:56 AM ET
By William Maclean
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Fist fights and scuffles greeted the first shipments of food and drink to reach civilians in southern Iraq after the start of the war.
But aid workers, while anxious about what might follow, say rising temperatures pose a more immediate threat to their efforts to stave off a humanitarian crisis.
Relief agencies, shocked by the scenes that unfolded after Kuwaitis rushed food by road across their border, are pushing for systematic deliveries to ensure the weakest get help first. "My heart goes out to the civilians because of what they are experiencing," said Tamara al-Rifai, spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"We are very worried that this situation marks the start of something very ugly in Iraq."
No major relief can reach Basra, Iraq's second largest city, because fighting has limited water and electricity supplies and forced many civilians to flee.
"It is extremely urgent situation in Basra, especially to do with children," said Geoffrey Keele of the U.N. children's fund.
"There is a convergence of risk factors which can lead to debility and death, particularly with the hot weather approaching. If you are malnourished you are more vulnerable and if you have no clean water then you are prey to bacteria."
British troops advanced into southeastern Iraq on March 20, the first day of the U.S.-led invasion.
They have secured southern oil fields and the deepwater port of Umm Qasr, but hopes the Shi'ite Muslim south would welcome U.S. and British forces as liberators have proved premature.
The British military sees no humanitarian crisis in Basra, with water was restored to half the population of 1.5 million this week, most families believed to have a month of food and medical facilities rudimentary but functioning.
"That said, we would still like to improve their living conditions as soon as possible," British army spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon told a news conference in Kuwait.
POTENTIAL FOR INSTABILITY
Aid workers say the scuffles over Kuwaiti food aid highlight the potential for instability in the south as the war grinds on.
Some privately describe the scenes of the weak and the elderly being pushed aside by young toughs as a disaster.
In Geneva, ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said a four-person team had crossed from Kuwait into Iraq to try to get Basra's Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant fully operational.
A team partly restored water supplies on Wednesday with three of the six generators at the station working.
"The plan is for them to reach the main station to try to continue repairwork and in the hope of increasing the capacity of the pumping station," Westphal said.
UNICEF said it was finalizing contracts with a private firm to truck water to Basra using up to 40 vehicles. Fifty-five community water bladders with a capacity of 5000 liters had been flown to Kuwait for delivery to Basra and neighboring areas.
On Baghdad, UNICEF said its staff in the capital were reporting that children were showing obvious signs of trauma -- such as continuous crying, fear of loud noises or nightmares.
Khaled Mansour, spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said in Amman his organization had appealed for $1.3 billion to fund a massive food aid operation for Iraq.
This will be part of the overall $2.2 billion appeal for all humanitarian assistance for Iraq in the coming six months being launched by the United Nations in New York.
"The WFP operation will be a phased response, depending on unfolding needs. It could evolve into the largest humanitarian operation in history," Mansour said.
"With the vast majority of Iraqis set to exhaust their food reserves by May, we have a very small window of opportunity," he said. "The money has to be received within days."
The Sir Galahad, a British naval supply vessel with several hundred tonnes of water, food, blankets and other supplies, docked at Umm Qasr on Friday with the first sea-borne aid shipment to the nation of 26 million since the war began.
The aid was being unloaded on Saturday and would be stored in warehouses prior to distribution throughout Iraq, a British military spokeswoman said. (With additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Amman)
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