Iraq suffers severe water shortage

Known as "the land between two rivers," Iraq - and particularly Baghdad - is finding itself in the grip of a severe water shortage.

With temperatures nudging 50-degrees centigrade, some residents of the Iraqi capital have been without clean running water for weeks.

The Baghdad Municipality blames insurgent attacks and crumbling infrastructure, but those without water say the problem lies with corrupt officials.

This report was compiled by the ABC's Baghdad staff and Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy.

MARK WILLACY: It's been weeks since Umm Salem and the other residents of the Bawiya slum in northern Baghdad have tasted clean running water. Crowded round the water tanker, Umm Salem patiently waits for hours for her 44-gallon drum to be filled.

"We don't have any water or electricity in our house," says the old woman. "We have nothing. Everyone here is poor," she says.

Umm Salem's neighbourhood is a hellish obstacle course of rotting garbage, rancid pools of sewage, and filthy shanties. Any talk of council services here is dismissed with a cynical laugh.

In Umm Salem's house, the kitchen tap yields nothing more than a few brownish drops of water. Outside in the alley, children wade knee-deep through human waste. Below ground the sewage is infecting the neighbourhood's drinking water. Read more

db: But it must feel really good to be free, no?