[Reader-list] Water as a weapon of war

[rustam]

being forwarded FYI:


"Not one child deserves to die because of a dispute - real that it 
may be
- 
between Washington and Baghdad, or the International Coalition 
led by the US  against 10, 000 al Qaeda operatives backed by a 
despotic regime.

Someone needs to show leadership, and sadly it is not coming 
from the current administration or the American public who 
unquestioningly follow.
No, Mr. President, you have given us a false choice.  I am neither 
for terrorism nor for your war.  Rather, I am merely trying to give a 
child a clean glass of water.  And if the child drinks the water and 
lives, then maybe, just maybe, she will remember us fondly."


---------------------------------------------------------------------

This is an article written by Edward D. Breslin, an employee of 
WaterAid working in Lichinga, Moçambique. These are Edward's 
personal views rather than him acting on behalf of WaterAid
in anyway. If anyone would like to contact Edward about this article 
his email address is wateraid-mz at teledata.mz


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Water as a Weapon of War


Water - so basic and so necessary for life.  We all know this of 
course, but many in the West understandably take their water 
supply for granted. 
Water 
is readily available, cheap in the USA at least, in abundant supply, 
and
always flows when we turn on our taps.


Water is not taken for granted in most parts of the world however.  
It is
generally accepted that over 1 billion people do not have access to 
clean
water in the world, and the health, economic and developmental
consequences 
of this reality are dire.  Women and children spend hours collecting 
dirty
water each day and lose valuable time, energy and calories (which 
are in
short supply anyway) in the process.  A family can not prosper if it
spends 
hours each day fetching water, and the bite is twice as painful 
because
that 
water is so often contaminated that the family has to spend what 
little it
has looking for a cure.  All that effort for something that inevitably 
undermines your health - it is cruel.


Diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and other water-related diseases haunt 
poor 
communities throughout the world but are the price families pay for 
a
glass 
of water.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) argues that over 2 million 
people die
each year from diarrhoeal disease linked to inadequate water 
supply.  Most
are children, most under 5 years old.And they suffer before they 
die.  A
child suffering from acute diarrhoea is
listless, can not produce saliva, can barely speak, can not sit up, 
and
can 
barely swallow.  The body shrivels, as the last remnants of moisture
within 
are sucked dry by a parched body.  Cholera is worse of course, as 
is 
typhoid.  The child's death is gruesome to behold - all for a glass of 
water.


Few hear their cries, even if the child could muster a tear.  These 
deaths
are sadly silent deaths, far from the cameras and the news, 
because it
picks 
off children one at a time.  Perhaps today a child will die down the 
road
from where I sit in Moçambique.  Tomorrow the death will occur 
across
town. 
The following day there may be a respite - no deaths today, but
tomorrow...

Hardly gripping but no less tragic than the famine camp footage that
periodically galvanises the world.

Development workers focused on water supply struggle and are 
often
frustrated.  Despite all our efforts, the number of people without 
water
continues to climb - despite claims from some in the sector to the
contrary.

There are many debates as to why this is happening, and the 
reasons are 
complex.  But the truth is that many water projects fail throughout 
the 
world every day.  Projects fail because of inappropriate 
technologies,
poor 
operation and maintenance systems, or a lack of finances on the 
part of 
governments and communities to keep their systems operational.  
Projects
fail to improve health because many countries do not have the 
finances to
purchase chlorine and other chemicals necessary to treat water - 
to make
it 
safe to drink.  Too often, these basics are out of reach.

And the sector races against time as each day without clean water 
will
mean 
more death, more anguish, more suffering - all for a drink of water.

But water rarely stops flowing out of malice or hate or punishment. 
No,even 
the cruellest dictators in the world would not use water as a 
weapon of
war. 
  The consequences are too much, the suffering too profound.  
Even the 
coldest dictators, who have shown scant regard for the welfare of 
people
under their control, would not go that far.  Surely water is off limits.
Surely...

Many Americans worry about water as a weapon of war, 
particularly since 
September 11th.  Americans are right to worry.  Terrorists could
conceivably 
contaminate US water supplies.  The impact would be cataclysmic 
-
Americans 
fighting against Americans over the last supplies of bottled water at 
the
convenience store.  That baby I describe dying of diarrhoea could 
be a
child 
down the street from us in Maryland, or Wisconsin, or California. 
Tomorrow 
it could be my child....


Sadly, water is being used as a weapon of war, and America is the 
culprit.And the international water sector needs to think clearly 
about
how 
we respond to this affront.


America needs to look at itself as well.  It needs to ask hard
questions.It 
needs to look into the eyes of hate and stare it down, and sadly 
those
eyes 
are our own.  And it needs to ask hard questions of the 
administrations of
Presidents Bush I, Clinton and Bush II. But where is the evidence?  
Well,
it 
has been known for some time that the
US has enforced sanctions on Iraq that include equipment and 
chemicals
necessary for water supply.  These include spares necessary to 
maintain 
water systems, and chemicals needed to treat contaminated 
water.  These 
sanctions have been in place since the end of the Gulf War.

Many have criticised the inclusion on these items of sanctions 
lists, but
the US has consistently and strenuously defended tight sanctions 
on water
treatment chemicals and equipment on the grounds that Iraq could 
divert 
these items to the military.  Weapons of mass destruction could 
be made
with 
this equipment and these chemicals, so they must be banned.

Yet Thomas J. Nagy of George Washington University has 
unearthed documents
from the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), an Agency within 
the US 
Department of Defence, that most clearly show the US' concerns 
about the
diversion of water treatment equipment and chemicals is 
disingenuous.  
The 
documents conclusively prove that the US has knowingly 
understood the
human 
consequences of denying vital water treatment chemicals to Iraq as 
part of
UN Sanctions.  They suggest that the US has denied these critical 
water 
treatment chemicals with the knowledge and intent of reeking 
havoc on
Iraq's
water supply system (The Progressive, September 2001).

Nagy's research brings the whole strategy behind the sanctions 
debate to
light, and it is evil.The DIA documents are frighteningly cold but 
meticulously researched and argued documents.  DIA produced a 
report in 
January 1991 that was circulated widely within the Bush Sr. 
Administration
that highlighted Iraq's water treatment vulnerabilities.  The report
argues 
that, "failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure
drinking 
water for much of the(Iraqi) population".  The report predicted that
Iraq's 
water treatment capacity would take six months to "fully degrade" 
(June 
1991) after which widespread disease, "if not epidemics" would 
ensue.

Most importantly, DIA argues the following: "unless water treatment
supplies 
are exempted from the UN sanctions for humanitarian reasons, no 
adequate
solution exists for Iraq's water purification dilemma, since no 
suitable
alternatives, including looting supplies from Kuwait, sufficiently 
meets
Iraqi needs.

Subsequent DIA reports document what is known about civilian 
casualties 
through the inclusion of water purifying chemicals and equipment 
on the 
Iraqi population.  They show that Iraq's water supplies are running 
at 5
percent capacity. The administrations of Presidents Bush Sr., 
Clinton and
George W. Bush have all vigorously enforced the inclusion of water
treatment 
chemicals (like chlorine), water extraction technologies and basic 
water
supply equipment on UN sanctions lists, often over the objections 
of other
Security Council members wishes.  UNICEF, the World Health 
Organisation
and 
other concerned development institutions and human rights groups 
have all
questioned the US stance, correctly arguing that the humanitarian 
consequences of the inclusion of these goods on UN sanctions 
lists has no
military or securitylogic.

As reported on CNN on November 29 2001,	"One of the biggest 
problems with
sanctions now is that a huge range of equipment needed for water,
sanitation 
and the oil industry, is routinely blocked at the sanctions 
committee by
the 
U.S. and Britain because of fears that they could be used for 
military 
purposes.  These are items as basic as water pumps... 
International 
humanitarian workers say the biggest problem in
Iraq right now is not a lack of food or even medicine -- it is a lack of
clean water, and that is because the infrastructure is not being
repaired.

And it can't be fully repaired without major imports of equipment.  
UNICEF
says the biggest single reason that children are still dying at an 
abnormally high rate here appears to be that many communities do 
not have
access to clean water."

The result of UN sanctions against Iraq has not, as hoped, been the
toppling 
of Saddam Hussein but rather the death of 5,000 children every 
month. 
That 
is 60,000 children a year.  That is 500,000 children - dead children -
since 
the Gulf War ended.

When asked on national television in 1996, former Secretary of 
State
Madeleine Albright stated that the large numbers of dying children 
in Iraq
created "a very hard choice" for the United States but "we think the 
price
is worth it."

And so sanctions continue, and vital water purifying equipment is 
denied
to 
Iraq because they have a leader who is viewed as a threat to the world by
handful of the most powerful nations in the world.  And the casualties in
this stand-off are children.  And the US knows.  And the US will not be 
swayed.  And the US does not care who dies in the process as long as this
one man is dethroned.


The US drones on about Iraqi culpability, and claims that all would be
resolved if Hussein simply let inspectors into Iraq.  Yet the US continues
to be the biggest purchaser of Iraqi oil in the world, and does not have
the 
courage to ask hard questions about our appetite for oil in light of child
deaths.

So we help the Iraqi regime by purchasing oil, but we do not have the
compassion, vision or leadership to have this fight with Saddam Hussein in
a 
way that spares children.

If only children were as valuable to Americans as the liquid that fuels
our 
SUVs. Surely it's the wrong target, and surely I am allowed to ask these
questions even in an environment where "criticism" is shamelessly linked
to 
the evil of al Qaeda.  Surely we can look into the eyes of children and
see 
their innocence.  Hopefully, we can look into our children's eyes and see
other children, maybe even an Iraqi child.  And surely what we will see
will 
transcend meaningless debates about an individual dictator, or a strategy
to 
oust him. Children, who have no choice over what happens in the world of
geo-politics, are the casualties here - all for a glass of water.  Sadly,
we 
are culpable, particularly given the fact that the US argues that Saddam
Hussein does not care about his people.  Wouldn't it be an amazing 
revelation to the world if we actually showed Iraqi children that we in
fact 
did care for them, that we in fact could see beyond the politics to the 
people, to the children?


And it raises a sharp image for me - when we think of chemical
laboratories 
where schemes are hatched to construct weapons of mass destruction, we
think 
of mad scientists who have lost their grip on reality.  We think of 
government psychopaths urging them on with a glint in their eye.  And we
imagine their names are Middle Eastern and largely unpronounceable.The
faces 
I am now confronted with are from within the US Government, within the US
Defence Intelligence Agency of the US Department of Defence, within 
Presidential Administrations, with names like George, Dan, George Jr., 
Dick,Al and Bill.  They are not the faces of some "other" but of us.

The tragedy of September 11th is so clear to us, so real, and so 
powerful.Not one person deserved to die in New York, Washington or on a 
plane thatcrashed in Pennsylvania.  Likewise, not one Afghani deserves to
die, or one child who had the misfortune to be borne into a county that
the 
United States does not like.  America will never be great until it 
argues
and defends the rights of all innocent people in the world, 
especially in
times of war.  We have not done this, despite token efforts with 
food aid
from the sky.

The real proof of our weakness is in our callous response to 
suffering
elsewhere, and our utter lack of compassion.  Collateral damage is 
thrown
around as if they were car parts.  Sadly, they are children.  Not one
child 
deserves to die because of a dispute - real that it may be - between 
Washington and Baghdad, or the International Coalition led by the 
US
against 
10, 000 al Qaeda operatives backed by a despotic regime.

Someone needs to show leadership, and sadly it is not coming 
from the
current administration or the American public who unquestioningly
follow.No, 
Mr. President, you have given us a false choice.  I am neither for
terrorism 
nor for your war.  Rather, I am merely trying to give a child a clean
glass 
of water.  And if the child drinks the water and lives, then maybe, 
just
maybe, she will remember us fondly.



Edward D. Breslin
Lichinga, Moçambique
20 December 2001

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