Dry run

So why did taps run dry two days after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom? According to Red Cross sources, US and British jets targeted the power station in Basra in the first phase of the aerial bombardment.

This shut off the water treatment and pumping plant in Basra and Nasiriya. The Red Cross also says, off the record, that its first team to reach Basra had carried spare parts for the water treatment plant and it was this team who repaired the plant two weeks after the war began. But British forces took the credit in a press conference in Kuwait to proclaim that their engineers had fixed the treatment plant.

Colonel Taylor agrees that the bombing of the power station might have disrupted water supply. But he doubts whether the water supplied through pipes was ever fit for drinking!!

8216;8216;Aerial bombardment did not affect drinking water. That affected the wash water and water for agricultural crops and the like,8217;8217; he said. He went on to say 8216;8216;drinking water has been predominantly bottled water delivered from other places.8217;8217;

If this kind of spin doctoring is not enough listen to this: 8216;8216;The pumping station is not working. That purifies water, but here the water that is pumped out is wash water,8221; says Colonel Taylor.

The contradictory explanations have led to whispers in Umm Qasr that the water crisis was deliberately created by the coalition to spark off an unrest. The allied forces have not yet made either an accurate 8216;need8217; assessment, nor are they willing to come above board on the issue of drinking water shortage.

The people of Umm Qasr say that whatever water reaches the town, escorted by British forces, is inadequate for the 50,000-plus population. This week, only two relief columns with water supplies reached Umm Qasr. Colonel Taylor admitted that 8220;this water was meant only for three communities8221;.

The US Army says that even if aerial bombardment knocked off the power plant in Basra, 8216;8216;we have special munitions that can knock off power grids offline, but not permanently damage,8217;8217; said Colonel Murphy. It is mind-boggling to understand how power grids can be knocked offline, without damaging civil infrastructure?

Umm Qasr residents want the British forces to set up a functioning water distribution system. 8216;8216;Britannia come here and out Saddam, so Brittania responsible for us till they go back,8221; said Wasvi, a resident.