Visits to Al Brathis, Labbani, and Hamdan Jissr water treatment plants in Basra, Friday 10th May 2002

All plants we visited were working and appeared reasonably ship-shape. Labbani and Hamdan Jissr had benefited from extensive restoration, funded by US organisation Veterans for Peace.

The plant engineers described many problems: keeping old equipment working without access to replacement machinery; damage during the Gulf War; lack of spare parts for essential repairs and maintenance; sometimes lack of sufficient quantity of treatment materials [alum – to remove suspended solid material, and chlorine – to destroy microbes] necessary to treat water to a good standard. Problems with the electricity supply, namely power cuts, and poor quality of electrical supply (in particular, low and variable frequency, and voltage surges) also interrupt operation, and can damage equipment, though the stations we visited had their own generators to provide back-up power.

Labbani treatment takes its raw water from the main river. [The river is the united Tigris and Euphrates, which run the length of Iraq, passing through Basra just before entering the Gulf.] The river looked fairly murky, and its quality has certainly deteriorated since 1991. Half a million tons of raw sewage now enter freshwater in Iraq every day; Iraq’s ailing sewage treatment network cannot treat much of the country’s waste water [1]. This poor quality of raw water puts extra burdens on the water treatment facilities. Engineers at Labbani said they have just enough alum and chlorine to treat the water, but there is no spare to add if the raw water is particularly bad at any time. Staff at Hamdan Jissr said the plant was working well, following restoration funded by Vets for Peace, though the quantity of chlorine gas added to the water is highly variable, as the control mechanism does not work well. [For comparison, in the UK, chlorine gas is generally no longer used at all. Solid chlorine-containing substances are used instead, which allow better control of the dosage, and also improve safety in the workplace.]

Engineers said that they endeavour to keep pumps and other machinery working as long as possible, but when there is a breakdown, they cannot process the usual volume of water. They implied that the plants struggle to meet the demand for water across the city. One engineer commented that more parts were available since some time after the Oil for Food agreement (1996), though supplies are still inadequate. A Vets for Peace delegate commented that the Labbani plant had been transformed since his visit two years previously, before rehabilitation. Quality of cleaned water did not appear to be tested: the plants were treating water as well as possible, though in the case of a breakdown, or shortage of some material, water quality is not always as good as desired.

An engineer at one plant described how, before recent restoration, the plant had not been able to effectively remove river mud from the water prior to further treatment. Failure to remove sediment at the beginning of treatment is likely to cause all further treatments to be ineffective, and is likely to clog up filters and cause other problems. This is another example of how a failure in one section of equipment can cause severe problems elsewhere.

Plant staff were unable to tell us how many homes their station could supply with water, as all the plants feed into Basra’s water network.

It appeared that the quality of water leaving these plants can be reasonable, though is not subject to testing, and can be variable. However the quality of water at people’s taps is quite another matter. The water distribution network is in desperate need of repairs and new pipes. UNICEF report more than doubling of water losses from the deteriorating network (1990-2002) [2]. Broken pipes not only waste water, but also allow dirt to enter the water pipes and contaminate the supply. In some areas, residents have made holes in pipes in the streets, as the pressure in the system is often too low for water to reach all homes. This obviously exacerbates the network problems.

The people of Basra have got used to this quality of water, but we stuck to drinking bottled water.

UNICEF report that ‘water quality has been heavily compromised during the 1990s. Half a million tons of raw sewage are dumped directly into fresh water bodies every day, with most treatment plants malfunctioning due to lack of spares, equipment, proper maintenance and skilled manpower. The impact of power cuts on the water and sanitation sector is considerable: reduced water pressure, [and] increased likelihood of contamination of water. Water samples show high level[s] of contamination.’ [1]

UNICEF also report that ‘the overall efficiency of the entire water system has dropped by 50% since 1991, due to absence of human and financial resources, lack of spare parts, proper maintenance and lack of sufficient electrical power. The per capita supply of water has dropped by up to half in both urban and rural areas. Water quality has also deteriorated. The deterioration in the quantity and quality of water available has contributed to an increase in the incidence of water-borne diseases among children under five years of age, which has caused an increase in the prevalence of malnutrition among under-fives.’ [2]

References:
1. UNICEF, April 2002. Profile of Children and Women in Iraq and UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation, Ch.1 Situation of Children and Women. Revised 15 April 2002
2. UNICEF January 2002. BRIEFING: UNICEF Iraq South / Centre. Water and Sanitation

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