Water in Iraq 'posing threat' to citizens

Iraq's population is at risk of disease due to a lack of clean drinking water in the region, it has been claimed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that 40 per cent of the country's 26 million people have no access to safe drinking water and are forced to drink from dirty rivers.

Despite recent efforts to improve the situation, an outbreak of cholera marred the country during the summer.

Head of the ICRC in the Middle East Beatrice Megevand Roggo said that there is "only so much a humanitarian organisation can do".

"Their own responsibility is also something that matters a lot - you cannot only count on humanitarians to solve the problems of a country like Iraq," Ms Megevand Roggo continued.

Meanwhile, a new report from a United States Navy researcher today found that 64 per cent of the US troops deployed to Iraq use tobacco products - a figure double that of the country's national average.