Silent Cost
Since
the US-led invasion malnutrition rates in children under five have
almost doubled from around 4% to almost 8%. This translates to around
400,000 affected children in this age group alone.
Jean
Ziegler, a UN hunger specialist, presented these findings at the annual
meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He blamed the
worsening situation in Iraq on the war.
Dirty Water
Malnutrition
is not simply about children going hungry. It has multiple causes,
including a lack of food, and a lack of clean water and sanitation.
Contaminated
water can cause severe diarrhoea, which results in dehydration, low
appetite, and a loss of nutrients, contributing to malnutrition.
Malnourished children are then more susceptible to further infections
from dirty water.
Essential Electricity
Iraq’s
water and sewer systems have effectively collapsed. Untreated sewage
drains into the rivers, further contaminating the water.
With
unreliable electricity supplies, families cannot boil their drinking
water to make it safe. In poorer areas, where people rely on kerosene
stoves, the high prices and crippling unemployment contribute to
worsening health.
The nutrition survey shows that acute malnutrition is worst in the impoverished south of Iraq.
Permanent Damage
Muscular wasting and general swelling are symptoms of acute malnutrition, indicating that children are at risk of death.
Over
the long term, malnutrition can result in crippled growth and weakened
immunity. Children who survive are often left physically and mentally
impaired for life.
Obesity to Starvation
Iraq
generally had good nutrition rates in the 1970s and ‘80s, to the extent
that obesity was the main nutrition issue facing Iraqi children.
However,
from 1990 when the U.N. imposed trade sanctions, malnutrition rates
shot up over six years, to a peak of 11 percent. With the U.N.
Oil-for-Food program they gradually dropped to 4 percent in 2002. But
the invasion in March 2003 reversed this trend.
Iraq's child malnutrition rate is now much higher than in Uganda or Haiti.
Aid Agencies
The
instability throughout Iraq continues to make daily survival a
struggle. The violence has also driven away many international aid
agencies.
Islamic Relief is one of the few remaining agencies, still working to help the children and vulnerable people of Iraq.