Relief official: Iraqi humanitarian situation improving

Serious problems remain

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BAGHDAD (CNN) -- The humanitarian situation in Baghdad is "getting better day by day," a relief official said Saturday, but agencies say hospitals still face staffing and security problems and improvements need to be made to the water supply.

"It's getting better definitely," Doctors Without Borders' Morten Rostrup said. "There are more hospitals open, but their capacity is reduced.

"I think the major problem has been, in fact, security and also lack of staff, because people have not really come back to the hospitals to work."

Rostrup said it was still too early for his organization to determine the number of Iraqi casualties.

"It will take some time to get all these figures together, and then we will have their total review," he said. "But of course it's a huge task here. I wouldn't really call the situation in Iraq for the time being as a humanitarian catastrophe..

"We've been in many places around in Iraq now to do rapid assessments, and there are huge needs, but (it is) not really a catastrophe."

The first convoy of food aid reached Baghdad Saturday after traveling from Jordan, The Associated Press reported. The flour and other supplies, carried in 50 trucks organized by the United Nations, will be stored in warehouses until authorities arrange distribution

Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, said the humanitarian crisis is improving, but a lot of work to do remains to be done.

"One of the biggest crises is the disruption in the water supply," she said. "Some of it (has been) brought about by the electrical equipment no longer working and that backs up the water supply and then some of the looting affects it as well," she said. UNICEF is the U.N. Children's Fund.

"We're seeing increased diarrhea. We're seeing increased malnutrition and potentially life threatening diseases because of the lack of water," she said.

U.N. and nongovernmental agencies are able to distribute medicines and repairs are being made to fix water systems, Bellamy said.

"But in Baghdad proper, the humanitarian crisis is still very real," she said.

She said the oil-for-food program is important, so if it is discontinued "there is going to have to be something else put in its place because this is a people very dependent on the oil-for-food program for food."

Children, she said, are suffering from the violence, as well as from health problems. Additionally, she said, children are adversely affected by family separation and are vulnerable to the unstable security situation.

"Many of the schools are not usable anymore so the kids can't go back to school. Some children have been actually hurt by the fighting itself but probably more of them have been hurt by the psychological damage," Bellamy said.

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