Iraq wastes 50% of water

Terra Daily via AFP: Fifty percent of water resources are wasted in Iraq, where six million people have no access to clean water, the United Nations said on Monday, the eve of World Water Day. "Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply by 2015," due to decades of conflict, sanctions and neglect, the UNICEF children's fund said in a statement.

"Iraq's average water production level per person, at 327 litres (86 gallons)/capita/day, is considered high by international standards but around 50 percent of the water produced is lost to seepage, leakage and wastage due to system inefficiencies," it said. "One in five or around six million Iraqis do not have access to safe water, of which the vast majority are in rural areas," it added.

It said more than 500,000 Iraqi children access their water from a river or creek and that over 200,000 access their water from an open well. In rural areas, one in four children access their water from rivers and creeks and nearly one in 10 use tanker trucks and open wells respectively….