Global Policy Forum

By Ewen MacAskill

The US and British governments are facing a worsening humanitarian crisis in besieged Basra, Iraq's second city, where electricity and water supplies have been severely disrupted. The coalition forces are still encountering pockets of resistance in and around Basra, and have been unable to establish a safe corridor for aid. Large parts of the city have been without water since Friday.

Unicef and the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday that the people had resorted to drinking from the river, which is also used for sewage, which could result in disease spreading through a population vulnerable after more than a decade of UN sanctions. Unicef warned that 100,000 children under the age of five were at risk.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, appealed for urgent measures to restore electricity and water. "A city of that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long," he said. "Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does for sanitation."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that Basra's main water treatment plant, Wafa al-Quaid, on the northern edge of the city, had been out of action for want of power since Friday, and although other plants were able to supply about 40% of the usual needs, the quality of the water was poor. The treatment centre also supplies water to the Zubair hospital. A Red Cross spokeswoman, Nada Doumani, said: "This is an emergency situation. We need to restore the full supply." Adequate drinking water is vital for the local population because the daytime temperature in Basra, which has a population of 2m, can soar toward 40C (104F) , she said.

An ICRC team worked in Basra at the weekend to restore enough electricity for pumps. With the main treatment plant out of action, the source of water has been switched from the Tigris to the Shatt-al-Arab, as the river is known below its confluence with the Euphrates. An ICRC spokesman said the population was more vulnerable to water-based diseases because they have had years of poor food. The spokesman said there was also a risk of cholera.

The ICRC team was working yesterday to try to get some generators running to provide the remaining 60% of the population with power. Tamara al-Rifai, the ICRC spokesperson in Kuwait, said the ICRC was waiting for guarantees of safe passage from the combatants in order to be able to repair Wafa al-Quaid.

Fighting was continuing yesterday. US and British forces surround Basra and allow Iraqi civilians to pass in and out through checkpoints, but they do not yet have control of the city. Huge supplies of food, clean water, blankets and medical supplies are sitting on Royal Navy and US navy ships in the Gulf. But the commander of the Royal Marines, Brigadier Jim Dutton, said it would be days rather than hours before humanitarian aid could be unloaded.

The approach to the port has only just been declared safe for Royal Navy mine hunters to travel through. Yesterday minesweepers began checking the approach to the port for 70 mines said to have been planted by Iraqi forces. Brig Dutton said: "There is a delay in getting aid through Umm Qasr and anything that delays the aid's movement is bad news. The town is now reasonably secure, but my estimation is that it will still be days rather than hours before the first ship can start unloading, because of the mine threat. "But there are other ways we are looking at to get the aid in."

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Sir Galahad, laden with food and other humanitarian supplies, is waiting to enter the port. Brig Dutton said he was pleased with progress, but added: "It was inevitable that we would be slightly slower in some areas than we originally expected, and faster in others, which has been the case."

A Unicef spokeswoman said: "There must now be a threat of disease as tens of thousands of people in their homes, hospitals and care institutions attempt to cope and find what water they can from the river and other sources. Unfortunately, the river is also where sewage is dumped." She added: "Not only are they suffering from high rates of malnutrition, in Basra there is the very real possibility now of child deaths not only from the conflict but from the additional effects of diarrhoea and dehydration. We estimate that at least 100,000 under the age of five are at risk."