Private Contractors Hoard Water From US Soldiers in Iraq

We’ve all heard stories of how US soldiers in Iraq have been forced to travel in Humvees lacking armor protection; however, the shortage in military supplies includes basic necessities.

Many soldiers stationed all over Iraq lack adequate supplies of drinking water. Commanders have been forced to steal water from the private contractors to meet the basic needs of their troops.

An Army training document on preventing heat casualties state that in hot desserts, a soldier can lose up to four gallons of water per day.  A 1957 field manual, states “in hot deserts, you need a minimum of one gallon (of water) per day” for survival.  Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey explains, “We were rationed two bottles of water a day…We were on missions, I ran out of water.” 

Faced with water shortages, US soldiers have turned to drinking untreated water found inside raided houses resulting in high rates of dysentery.  Eventually Robey’s commander led his troops to the Baghdad International Airport along one of the riskiest routes in Iraq to “steal” water from civilian contractors.  At the airport, Robey discoverd pallets of water that were not being distributed to the troops.

Robey’s story is not unusual.  Private Hannah describes, “My sergeant told my lieutenant we didn’t have enough water and he said go find some.”  Hannah’s troop also found water at civilian contractor facility where, “We’d just run out and start grabbing cases of water and start throwing them in the gunner’s hatch.”   Soldiers can eat Subway and Burger King, but they can’t get clean water.  The contractor to blame was KBR.

KBR has no formalized training employess involved in water operations. At Camp Ar Ramadi, soldiers’ sinks and showers were supplied with untreated wastewater.  Former KBR employee Ben Carter explains, “That water was two to three times as contaminated as the water out of the Euphrates River…You’re standing in what’s essentially a sauna of microorganisms. Your eyes, ears, anyplace there’s a cut, a person would be at risk of containing a pathogen.”

In 2007, private contractors outnumbered US troops in Iraq. There are many things wrong with the system of using private civilian contractors in military conflicts, but putting such contractors in charge of military personel’s basic neccessities is irresponsible.  If we can’t provide the basic neccessities to our troops in the Iraq War, then they shouldn’t be there.

Image by jamesdale10 on Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Via: KHOU

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