Mmm...The Taste of Freedom in Iraq

So when do we get the flowers and candy for this?

Water Offers Deadly Relief in a Blistering Iraqi Slum
Typhoid and hepatitis E run rampant because sewage has tainted nearly the entire supply.

BAGHDAD - The price of bicycle pumps has more than quadrupled in Sadr City, for reasons that have nothing to do with cycling. Residents of Baghdad's worst slum use them to coax water from the district's battered supply lines. It's either that or use their mouths as though they're siphoning gas.

But there's a problem - the water is making them sick.

Typhoid and hepatitis E are running rampant through Sadr City this summer, as residents rely heavily on a sewage-tainted water supply to endure temperatures of 115 degrees and up. The outbreak has strained local healthcare facilities and left Health Ministry officials able to only guess at the scope of the problem.

The increase in typhoid (known as "tee-pho" here) is a regular summer occurrence in Iraq because of increased water consumption, but officials say this year's infection rates are much higher than usual. Hepatitis E, although present in the country for decades, is more rare.

Sadr City's aging water system was crumbling before last year's U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. But the postwar looting of a sewage treatment plant brought the crisis to a new level. Broken water lines allow raw sewage to seep into the regular water supply. Frequent electrical shortages stop the municipal water pumps, and innovative means of pumping water from the dry pipes end up bringing in extra sewage.