Iraq: UN agencies face challenges brought on by looters and shot-up water pipes

From so-called "Ali Babas" who steal the vehicles of repairmen while they are working atop power lines to trigger-happy citizens shooting up water pipes to steal fresh water, United Nations relief agencies in Iraq today described some of the problems they face on the ground.

When the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI), Ramiro Lopes da Silva, toured a power plant in Baghdad, the manager recounted how the lack of security was a major concern for the technicians who work on the transmission lines.

"He said to us that while they are operating in the lines, the looters, 'the Ali Babas' as they call them, are taking away their vehicles, their tools," UNOCHI spokesperson Veronique Taveau told a briefing in Baghdad. "The situation of the lack of law and order is impacting on the ability of the Iraqis to reactivate the basis services."

When 30 assessment teams funded by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to investigate the water situation in southern Iraq got around to quality tests in Basra, the country's second largest city, they were shocked to find that at a third of the sites they visited they could do no testing because there was no water at all.

"The reason for this was simple," spokesman Geoffrey Keele said. "People continue to either pound or shoot holes into the water distribution pipes to steal the water that comes gushing out. As the water gushes out, it reduces the water pressure and further down the line there is no water at all."

This was having two very serious effects, he said. People in need cannot access water. For instance, pipes feeding Basra General hospital had been punctured so many times that they had run dry and the hospital only had two days' supply left. Secondly, stagnant water was leaking into punctured pipes, contaminating whatever supply was left for those further down the line.

The agency was assessing how to carry out repairs but "repairs need to be accompanied by security and that is something UNICEF cannot provide," Mr. Keele said. "That is the responsibility of the coalition forces and it is a job that needs doing now."

And if after a stressful day the workers should want a bit of quiet, even that is denied them by black-market gunslingers firing their weapons. “We have noticed a significant increase in black market activities and weapon smuggling,” Ms. Taveau said. “People are not only buying them but testing them in the street and that increases the volume of night shooting and the falling down of bullets. Groups of teenagers are seen in the street carrying AK 47s.”