Evaluation of Drinking Water Pollution and Health Effects in Baghdad, Iraq

Contamination of water reserves by biological, chemical, and radiologic agents may affect the health of millions of residents in the Iraq as well as many others throughout the world. Fatal outbreaks of cholera struck several provinces of the country, including Baghdad. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) also says air pollution, resulting from burning oil and aggravated by war, is cause for concern. The study area Baghdad has been divided into two parts: Central Baghdad and Outskirts of Baghdad (included in Baghdad but near the boundaries of Baghdad). The outskirts of Baghdad comprises of 4 cities: Al-Hussaniya located in northern part of Baghdad, Abu-Gurabe located in the western side of Baghdad, Jissr Diyala located in the eastern side of Baghdad and finally Al-Mahmodiya located in the southern side of Baghdad. These cities are in very poor situation in terms of water supply. The quality of water supplied is bad as no attention is given to WTP's in these places, which is also because of the fact that given the insecure war conditions, these areas are inaccessible. The sewage is thrown directly into the river because these areas do not have sewage treat-ment plants. In case of central Baghdad the water supply and sewerage network are broken in some places. Due to this there is mixing of water between the two networks. For this study we taking water supply samples and collect all the samples from WTPs and water supply network (houses, shops and different places). We made the analysis to parts firs