Mohammed Alkhereiji • Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 20 June 2003 — The Kingdom is donating 10 water purification plants to Iraq, each of them with a capacity to purify 520,000 gallons of water a day. Once installed, the relief project will supply the Iraqi people with over five million gallons of uncontaminated water a day.

In most Iraqi cities and villages the existing clean water resources have been destroyed or contaminated, and water-borne illnesses — which include cholera, dysentery and diarrhea — are proliferating. Children are the main victims of the disruption of clean water supplies, with diarrheal disease among the three main killers of Iraqi children in recent years, according to studies by the World Health Organization.

Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar ibn Sultan said the purification facilities “are absolutely necessary due to growing concerns about the lack of potable water in Iraq.”

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to respond to the needs of the Iraqi people,” he said. “We have set up a comprehensive aid package. We have provided a field hospital along with ambulances, doctors, medical supplies and foodstuffs.”