Postwar Humanitarian Aid Plans in Disarray

Critical humanitarian action for postwar Iraq is in disarray as the endgame approaches in Baghdad. Near-riots break out at feeding stations near Basra. Nobody can agree on how relief should be delivered and who should do it. This squabbling has gone on for months, while Iraq's civilians get by on food stocks set to run out by May Day.

The human costs of this war have not been so high as anticipated, but stemming imminent disaster now proves far more complicated than anyone realized. American troops entering Najaf arrived without the one thing residents needed - water, the supply of which had been cut for four days. Last week the Baghdad power grid failed, affecting public health facilities like hospitals and sewage treatment plants. The water system in Basra, a city of more than a million people, also failed. Together, dirty water could threaten nearly a fifth of Iraq's population with epidemic disease.
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Chaos stymies aid work in Iraq
Hospitals overwhelmed; Red Cross briefly suspends operations after worker killed in Baghdad

Chaos and jubilation joined Thursday to further confuse what aid workers described as an “extremely critical” humanitarian situation in Iraq, overwhelming hospitals and preventing power and water workers from reaching their jobs. Conditions were so dangerous that the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first line of defense against death and disease among the war-weary, suspended its operations in Baghdad for a while.
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