Boiling heat and no water: Taps run dry in southern Iraq
AL-AGHAWAT, Iraq: Younes Ajil turns on the tap in his home but nothing comes out: Dozens of villages are without running water in drought-hit Iraq, surviving on sporadic tanker-truck deliveries and salty wells.
For everything from drinking to bathing and washing dishes and clothes, Ajil and his eight children wait at their home in Al-Aghawat for trucked-in water from the Diwaniyah provincial authorities once or twice a week.
In burning summer temperatures that at times approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), he said he hasn’t bathed for four days.
![People gather to collect water from a cistern amid shortage and high temperatures in the village of Al-Aghawat in Iraq’s central Diwaniya province. (AFP)](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2022/08/25/3407956-61358376.jpg)