Water shortage threatens EU peace mission

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By David Axe

IRIBA, Chad — Polish army Lt. Col. Marc Gryga has water on his mind.

Col. Gryga is a point man for the European Union peacekeeping force deploying to eastern Chad with a U.N. mandate to protect a quarter-million refugees plus the aid workers who care for them.

The refugees, most of whom fled ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2004, are housed in a dozen large U.N.-administered camps.

Col. Gryga's zone, centering on the town of Iriba 40 miles from the Sudan border, includes three refugee camps housing around 50,000 people.

Around 500 soldiers from the 4,000-strong EU Force, or EUFOR, are bound for Iriba. But before the soldiers can actually begin patrolling around the camps, an advance guard of 200 Polish, French and Irish troops - with significant diplomatic support - must build the infrastructure, and the local relationships, that make the patrols possible.

For Col. Gryga, that means begging for water.

From a wind-swept, scorpion-infested, temporary camp outside Iriba, Col. Gryga directs teams of Polish engineers and French logistics specialists building a large base with 20-feet-tall earthen walls and a sandbagged ammunition dump. Irish soldiers guard the workers from barbed-wire-ringed watchtowers.

The afternoons are so hot that the soldiers can work only between 6 a.m. and noon, and again from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. One Italian military doctor attached to EUFOR recommended every soldier drink seven liters - more than seven quarts - of water per day.

But combined with water used in construction, the current Iriba force's needs outstrip their ability to supply water by air and road. Col. Gryga says the French cargo planes based at the logistics hub in western Chad are worn out from overuse. And soon Chad's rainy season will shut down much of the country's road network, making military ground convoys unreliable.

To make matters worse, the Iriba contingent's water needs are set to double when the rest of the soldiers arrive by the end of August.