Iraqi water and sanitation systems could be military
target, says MoD
news.independent.co.uk
By Jo Dillon, Deputy Political
Editor
02 February 2003
The Ministry of Defence yesterday admitted
the electricity system that powers water
and sanitation for the Iraqi people could be
a military target, despite warnings that its
destruction would cause a humanitarian
tragedy.
While military planners insist they have
taken into account the humanitarian threat
in the event of hostilities breaking out, a
spokesman for the MoD admitted
decisions may have to be made where a
potential target had a "dual use".
But any plan to bomb Iraq's electricity
system will anger aid charities, whose
warnings were repeated by the Secretary of
State for International Development, Clare
Short, last week.
Ms Short, who is to take up the matter with
the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon later this
week, said that "any bombing to take out
electronic capacity and thus disarm
anti-aircraft capacity could present a
danger to electrics and damage water and
sanitation facilities as a consequence".
"There would be the resultant danger that
people would not have access to water
and that sanitation facilities would be even
worse than they are now. Clearly,
preparations need to be made against that
eventuality so that the health of the people
of Iraq does not suffer."
While the MoD would not be drawn on
possible targets they insisted "every care
would be taken in all circumstances at
every planning level that all targets were
military targets and there was very little
chance of injury to civilians or non-military
targets. However, a spokesman added: "I
can obviously see the difficulty in this
because a target seen as a military target
can also have, sadly, implications for
civilian populations as well."
Ms Short has warned that on top of the
threat to the water and sanitation system
the Oil For Food programme would also be
disrupted by military action at a time when
millions of Iraqis were dependent on it.
"It is a massive system and most of the
people of Iraq depend on it, not simply for
adequate supplies but in the case of
Baghdad-controlled Iraq for the very basics
of human survival," she said.
"Accordingly, any action needs to be very
organised and calm, ensuring that the
capacity of the system is maintained or a
replacement system is put into place very
quickly."
However, the Government has admitted
there has been only limited contingency
planning for the humanitarian effects of military action on Iraq. While the
United States announced last week it would make available $15m (£9m)
in aid, the British Government has yet to announce any additional funding
for the humanitarian effort.
Talks with Iraq's neighbours about the housing of up to a million
refugees have been non-existent, the Government has admitted.
And the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said last week
that plans are "in terms of scope ... not really on a large scale".
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