IRAQ: UNICEF announces plans to reopen Baghdad office

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The United Nations Children’s Fund released a statement Tuesday announcing that the organization will reinstate operations in Baghdad after six years of working from neighboring Jordan. The humanitarian group left in 2003 because of the fighting and is returning as U.S. combat troops pull back. CNN is reporting on the announcement and according to the news agency, UNICEF says, ‘This marks the beginning of the UNICEF Iraq country office’s full transition back to Iraq over the next year.”

UNICEF is also announcing that a $10-million water and sanitation project funded by the European Community will provide clean water for over 100,000 people. UNICEF’s Iraq representative, Sikander Khan, says in the statement that children in schools in the provinces of Irbil, Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Sulaymaniya, Basra and Maysan will have sustainable access to drinking water. The statement also says that because of the conflict, approximately 6 million people have no access to treated water. Of those, “nearly 2.5 million people are accessing their water from a river or streams, putting them at very high risk of contracting water-borne diseases such as acute watery diarrhea, the second largest killer of children in the country.”

The endeavor will include teaching government staff, evaluating the country’s water and sanitation, and building plants in two areas of the country that can be replicated and implemented in other parts.

-- Amber Smith in Los Angeles