Iraq: There's More at Stake in the Basra protests Than Dirty Water and Oil

Sep 7, 2018 | Ben Wedeman, CNN
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Basra, Iraq's third-largest city, has been wracked by protests over the decrepit state of public services. The municipal water supply is contaminated by salt water, sending thousands to the hospital in recent months, while long power cuts continue, at a time when daytime temperatures regularly reach 50 degrees centigrade (122 Fahrenheit). Added to these immediate, in-your-face discomforts are perennial unemployment and that constant of contemporary Iraq, rampant corruption.