Report: Dirty drinking water poisons 60,000 Iraqis

The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights said yesterday that as many as 60,000 people were poisoned in the province of Basra by drinking contaminated water.

“We monitor with concern the increasing incidence of water pollution in the province where the number of cases has reached 60,000,” director of the commission’s office in Basra, Mahdi Al-Tamimi said in a press statement, adding that “this is a very serious environmental disaster affecting the lives of Basra citizens”.

Al-Tamimi has expressed surprise that the concerned authorities have not done anything to reduce the water salinity and called on the Ministry of Health to “disclose the tests results of cases affected by water pollution and take preventive measures as quickly as possible”.

The statement did not mention the infection period, however, since the middle of last month, citizens and human rights organisations have been complaining about the increasing number of cases affected by water pollution in Basra.

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