Relief groups fear catastrophe in Iraq

Christian Century, April 5, 2003

More than 400,000 children suffering from malnutrition. Access to basic medical supplies severely restricted. Half a million tons of raw sewage dumped into rivers daily while water treatment plants sit idle. Two-thirds of the nation's population dependent on food rations. Students doing homework by candlelight....

Scenes from a country being torn apart by war? No--scenes from everyday life in Iraq prior to the U.S.-led bombing and invasion.

Even before hostilities started, relief agencies said the humanitarian situation in Iraq hadn't received the attention it deserved. Iraqi children, who account for half the country's population, have been particularly at risk.

According to the United Nations, about 16 million Iraqis have been completely dependent on distributions from its Oil for Food program. The monthly distributions, however, usually lasted only three weeks, leaving recipients to sell personal items so they can purchase food for the final week, said Rupen Das, director for humanitarian assistance for World Vision Canada.

"The ones who end up suffering the most are the children when it comes to a food crisis," said Mark Beach, communications director for the Mennonite Central Committee. UNICEF has reported that 23 percent of Iraqi children suffer from chronic malnutrition and 4 percent suffer from acute malnutrition. Das said these rates are comparable to the situation in Ethiopia at the height of its crisis. Beach said the malnutrition problem has been exacerbated by the high incidence of waterborne diseases, carried in untreated water.

Jonathan Frerichs, communications director for Lutheran World Relief, said half of Iraq hasn't been receiving piped water, and two-thirds of those who have been getting it don't receive treated water.

Das, part of a team that went into Iraq at the end of January to assess the current conditions and level of preparation for war, said medications also were hard to come by. The import of so-called dual-use medications like antibiotics, which can be used by the Iraqi army to protect itself from biological weapons, was significantly limited, he said.

As Frerichs put it, "We're attacking the government who's running the food distribution system for two-thirds of the country." He said families have been stockpiling food, but their options are limited because many already have had to sell most of their belongings for past food purchases.

"If you add in disease and lack of medical treatment, it just puts a lot of people very close to the edge of something very frightening." Das's assessment team reported that Iraq has only a month's worth of food and medical supplies in reserve. Frerichs said war also probably would mean the end of any water treatment.

Frerichs noted that the crisis circumstances in Iraq are unusual because its society isn't based on agriculture. He said most human crises seem to happen where people live off the land, but Iraqis live more like Americans. "This would be akin to us losing access to our [grocery] store and checkbooks," he said.

Das said the biggest concern is that the level of preparation is extremely low for the scale of human emergency that could unfold.--RNS