arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Basra is een stad met iets meer dan een miljoen inwoners. Er is nog altijd een gebrek aan water en elektriciteit. Er zijn elke dag gevechten tussen Irakezen en Amerikanen, ook tussen Koerden en Arabieren. Dit al sinds het arriveren van de Amerikaanse en Britse soldaten in Basra, meer dan een maand en een half geleden.

Men kan zich afvragen wat er in de rest van Irak gebeurd.


Een kort overzicht berichten over cholera in Basra. De eerste drie zijn er van de laatste dagen. De drie onderste zijn er van twee tot drie weken geleden.



Iraq, Politics, 5/8/2003

“Meantime, the world Health organization announced that 17 Cholera cases were reported in southern Iraq.”

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030508/2003050808.html



Geneva, May 8 (Bloomberg)

“Seventeen cholera cases, most involving young children, were confirmed in the southern city of Basra, WHO, a United Nations agency, said on its Web site. The number of people infected with the bacterium may be 10 times higher than the number of confirmed cases, Denis Coulombier, a health official in Iraq's second- largest city, told the British Broadcasting Corp. Cholera causes diarrhea, quickly leading to dehydration and death if untreated.”

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aWRsrJAbxe0E&refer=us



09 May 2003

« Yesterday an American soldier was shot dead in broad daylight by an Iraqi who approached him with a pistol. US forces exchange fire with armed Iraqis almost daily across the country.”

“After a month of occupation it remains in a state of collapse. Drinking water, from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contaminated with sewage, has caused outbreaks of cholera and thyphoid among children in Basra. And the World Health Organisation warned yesterday that unless the security situation improves and medical staff can work in safety, the cholera outbreak could become an epidemic.”

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=404493





15 April 2003

“Basra could face a cholera crisis within weeks even as a scorching summer approaches amid a major lack of clean water, according to officials of the southern Iraqi city.

Basra, a city of more than a million people, has been without supplies of clean water since the start of war more than three weeks ago.”

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/middleeast/view/37497/1/.html



24 April, 2003

“Reporters have described crowds of hundreds in Basra having to fill containers of dirty water from broken pipes or straight from the murky Shatt Al-Arab waterway.”
“Colonel John Graham, Commander Medical of the 1st UK Division, warned that cholera was indeed becoming a "danger" in the city."

"The water supply is still very patchy and mid-April is the start of the cholera season," he said. “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2973033.stm


Apr 24 2003




“Doctors are warning of a potential cholera outbreak in Basra as British engineers continue their struggle to restore basic services in Iraq's second city.”

“"It's the biggest danger at the moment and we have to be aware of it.
"The water supply is still very patchy and mid-April is the start of the cholera season.
"Doctors are watching for diarrhoea in under-fives but the public health laboratory has been gutted so they can't do the monitoring of schools that they want to do."
Dr Ahmed Abdul Hassan, senior house officer in the Basra Teaching Hospital surgical department, said the medical system had collapsed to such a degree that they would not be able to contain cholera cases.
He said: "We have a very bad system now and if we have one patient with cholera there will be an outbreak."
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0600uk/page.cfm?objectid=12886651&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=Cholera%20outbreak%20alert%20in%20Basra

Op een webpagina van Bechtel, een bedrijf dat een groot contract in de wacht sliep voor de wederopbouw van Irak kan men het volgende lezen.

"Bechtel has been selected by USAID through its Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Program to participate in the design, rehabilitation, upgrading, reconstruction, and construction of Iraq’s infrastructure, initially including: one seaport, five airports, miscellaneous electric power systems, road networks, rail systems, municipal water and sanitation services, school and health facilities, select government buildings, and irrigation systems."


Maar eerst moet Bechtel nog een aantal contracten verdelen:

"Each conference will include, among other topics, an overview of Bechtel's role and the status of Bechtel’s support of USAID's humanitarian assistance efforts. Other factors, including maximization of Iraqi resources, will be discussed"

http://www.bechtel.com/iraq.html

De eerste conferentie heeft plaats op 21 mei.



Ondertussen kunnen de mensen in Irak creperen. En mogen ze luisteren naar de regring die de VS voor hen koos.



En in de wereld van bedrijven kent iedereen iedereen.

Bechtel en Shell hebben samen een bedrijf:

"Founded in 1995, InterGen is jointly owned by Shell Generating (Holding) B.V. and Bechtel Enterprises Energy B.V.. The international standing and experience of Shell, with far-ranging expertise in energy fuels and technology, and Bechtel, a premier global project developer, engineer, and contractor, significantly enhance our capabilities to develop, build and operate power-related facilities and related assets."

http://www.intergen.com/about.html