Water

The water situation in the camps of Iranian prisoners of war in Iraq.

Water is a compound consisting of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Odorlessness, colorlessness, and tastelessness are the qualities setting water apart from other liquids. The best definition of water supply is as follows: "water is the source of life."

Humans have had a strong relationship with water since the beginning of life. Our whole life depends on water. Water makes up approximately seventy percent of the human body's weight and plays a vital role in most of the body's metabolic processes. The human body's need for healthy water is different. This amount depends on criteria such as age, activity level, and environment; Also, human beings need water to wash their bodies, clothes, dishes, etc. continuously and throughout their lives. Man takes water for granted until he faces the lack or absence of its supplies. During captivity, especially in the early hours, Iranian prisoners were more or less faced with the problem of dehydration; The Iraqi Baathists used different methods to torture the prisoners, one of which was cutting off the water. There were prisoners who suffered from various diseases due to dehydration, thirst or drinking contaminated water or even lost their lives and died martyrs.

Lack of water

Khaji (2011) considers the lack or absence of drinking water in the camps to be a regular and normal thing, especially during the transfer of prisoners from the front line to the camps and quarantines.

According to Zaghian (1389), the first problem faced by the prisoners in Al-Rashid prison was the lack of water: there was a cubic tank next to the entrance of the sanatorium, from which the prisoners used water for their needs during the day. But the water in that tanker did not meet the needs of the prisoners, so we often faced a shortage of water, and because the water in the toilets was often cut off, the prisoners had to use the water from this tanker. Water from this tank was also used to wash dishes and clothes.

Permanent water cut

The fact that southern Iraq and the central region are composed of deserts, and consequently are extremely hot and dry, has caused this country to be constantly confronted with an acute shortage of water supplies. This issue endangered the health of the prisoners on a larger scale. The captives were almost always faced with the problem of water cut.

Atai (1389: 137) has stated the following about the Mosul 2 camp: "The WC water was constantly cut off; "Water buckets were placed next to the toilets, and some volunteers were assigned to fill these buckets with water from the source." Nobrani (1391: 105) has stated in the case of Qatz 2 in the Ramadi camp (Camp 9): "The water cut and its pressure sometimes got on everyone's nerves." During the time of internment, almost none of the seniors, who were the main officials inside the sanatoriums, allowed the prisoners to use water when using the standing toilets due to the lack of water consumption and its rationing; Also, the water was always cut off in the washroom, toilet, and bathrooms, and if once in a while there was some water in the tap, you could rest assured that its pressure was miserably low.

Due to the lack or frequent disconnections of water, the bodies of captives were unclean most of the time. According to Saleminjad (1389: 65), "Almost constant water cut-off prevented the implementation of Sharia issues that is, religious issues highly recommended in the Holy Quran. People were busy performing their religious duties with unclean bodies for days. In some cases, the captives performed their ceremonial ablutions using a piece of soaked pad or sponge."

Lack of water taps

The double problem of the captives was the lack of taps for washing dishes and clothes. Nobrani (ibid.: 107) states: "Some days the water was cut off and the clothes were left with suds on our hands... we did not use yaghlavis (which were small narrow tray-shaped plates from which soldiers, in here captives, ate) as water was almost always cut off, and even If there was sometimes water in the tap, washing so many Yaghlavis could prove really time-consuming and difficult, thus, each group consisting of ten captives had to eat from the same Yaghlavi."

Water health status, water pollution

Human health is directly related to healthy and hygienic water. The lack of clean water in the camps caused diseases and environmental pollution: "In the city of Al-Amara, they jampacked us into tight silos into which the Iraqis brought the water hose of the water tanker and putting it on the ground, opened the tap so that the thirsty prisoners could drink water from it. Indeed! You could see a red glint in that water which represented the shed blood of our comrades; those who had died martyrs. Children's urine, and particles of cement and soil were also mixed with that water. (Rahmanian, 1390)

Ata'i (ibid.: 121-122) said: "The camps located in Ramadi, which were exposed to sand storms and chernozem or black soil, were constantly lacking water, and the drinking water was polluted and unsanitary and had a high percentage of minerals. These two factors had caused skin diseases, inflammation and infection of kidney and bladder as well as formation of stone deposits in them. Rahmanian (ibid.: 65) remarked about the Mosul 4 camp: "The water pipes were rusty. "The children had diarrhea for a month after drinking that yellow and rusty water."

Saleminjad (ibid.) states that as the water which captives used, mixed with washing powder, contained lime, it could not clean properly, and there were always soap-suds left and stuck on surfaces and also, on their skins, and this in the course of time led to emergence of certain skin diseases.

Due to water pollution, skin diseases in strange and unknown forms, such as skin fungi, large purulent boils, etc., were prevalent among the prisoners. Red Cross specialist doctors, emphasizing the contamination of drinking water, introduced and described several types of these diseases as unknown; Parasitic diseases, diarrhea and nausea caused by contaminated water were also common among the prisoners. (Ata’i, Ibid).

Sometimes the use of another item of captives` belongings rather than a cup or a mug could prompt the outbreak of a contagious disease among them: "During the early days of our captivity, a boot fellow formed our drinking-vessel. Those who could help the injured, fetched water inside the boot fellow. The very helpful lot sometimes dampened their clothes, so that the thirsty ones could slightly slake their thirst by sucking their drenched clothes ." (Rahmanian, ibid.: 17).

Methods of cooling hot water

The drinking water was hot, and the captives used different methods to cool it down, especially in the summer season. One of these methods was the use of a pill. The Iraqis in each sanatorium, separately, had provided the prisoners with an earthenware container called Hubbaneh to store and cool drinking water. This dish was in the shape of an inverted cone, which was placed on a stool or a tripod that was made for this purpose. The tanks differed in terms of water capacity and had large, small and medium types. The number of hubbanehs in each sanatorium was limited and did not meet the needs of the prisoners. Of course, it should be noted that, in the Red Cross camps or those of the missing, there was no mention of Habbaneh. Khaji (ibid.) said that in sanatoriums where there were no water buckets or bottles, the prisoners took the water they needed during the night with a glass to the sanatorium.

The captives made small casks with nylon and cloth and hung them in front of the window to cool the water inside. Metal containers were also used to cool water; They wrapped a cloth or sack around these containers and hung them full of water in front of the window, exposed to the wind, so that the water in the container would cool down little by little.

The captives found and collected vegetable oil tin containers (each holding 4 kilograms) and after washing them, they made a handle for them with barbed wire so that they could easily hang them on the wall or pillars of the porch of the sanatorium, and in the next stage, they sewed pieces of blankets or old clothes around them . . Due to the large number of captives and the lack of tin containers, it was not possible to build it for each person separately. One member was chosen as a butler to take care of the water cooling, and keeping the blanket or cloth around it moist.

Use of rainwater

In many cases, prisoners had used rain water for drinking and ... In rainy season they had put the bucket in the open air and used it after water accumulation: “Once that water was cut off for a long time and we got so confused… far away from their homeland the thirsty prisoners looked up to the sky… It was raining heavily. That lifted the boys ` spirits, and they started filling their water containers with a gusto.” (Rumanian, that, 28-29)

Lack of piped water

The lack of piped water is frequently mentioned as the captives present in different camps, recollect the sad memories of those days. In most of the camps, piped water didn’t exist and water was brought to the camps in a tanker. According to Khaji (the same), Camp Ramadi due to the flatness of the area and urban water scarcity, had drew on a number of water sources placed on the roof of the building to create the enough pressure for water to flow through the pipes. In this way, water was brought to the camp by the tanker and pumped into the sources and then was used by the prisoners. Because of that, the water stored in the source was exposed to air and it was very hot in the summers and cold in the winters… In order to take a bath, the prisoners took the water into the bathroom and washed themselves with it.

Water ration in captivity

Khaji (the same) said that at the beginning of the arrival of Iranian prisoners to camp No. 17 in Tikrit, they were accommodated in three sheds. These sheds didn’t have the proper sanitary facilities. But they had piped water. Water was rationed, in a way that by day only within short spells were the captives allowed to use water: “during the first 10 days of arrival of the Iranian prisoners at camp No.6 (Ramadi 1), these people were kept in the sanatorium. The Iraqi soldiers had filled about 4 or 5 tins ( each tin was originally meant to contain 7 kilograms of oil ) with water and put them behind the window of the sanatorium for the prisoners to use.” Rahmanian (the same: 21) said about the al-Rashid prison in Baghdad: “In the extreme heat of summer, every day and night each person got just two glasses of water.” Karami (1389) said we were given two buckets containing 45 liters of water as our ration on our breaktime outside which our butler i.e the person in charge of water, brought inside the sanatorium during the last minutes of our breaktime outside. This amount of water was for drinking, ablution and sanitary purposes of 60 people for 15 hours. During the first years of captivity there was only one bucket, Unavoidably, in the hot months of the year, we used the urine bucket at the early hours of the night and placed it in the toilet once it was emptied.

Water cut off, a means of torture and breaking enemies

Baathist Iraqi cut off the water in the camp repeatedly for bothering the prisoners and didn’t allow them to leave the sanatorium. Also, some of the prisoners lost their lives because of excessive thirst and dehydration from the very beginning of captivity or in Iraqi prisons.