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Basic Public Services Prove near Impossible for West Mosul Citizens | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An Iraqi woman clutches her children to her after fleeing Mosul. (AFP)


Mosul – Men, women and children stand in separate lines in the scorching sun baking west Mosul’s Baghdad Square for a turn in one of the two white mobile clinics.

According to an AFP report, in the Mosul area, Dary has a clinic at Hammam al-Alil, a half-hour drive south of the frontline and is now providing medical assistance to those who cannot reach the health center.

“One of the mobile clinics is for women only, run by a female doctor and equipped with ultrasound machines for pregnant women,” said Ihab Amer, a Dary staff member.

Dary is an independent Iraqi non-profit organization offering medical care and relief, which also provides financial assistance. Its local office is based in the capital Baghdad and branches throughout Iraq.

Ten Iraqi doctors work out of the mobile clinics and are assisted by 10 nurses, with dedicated drivers to take the converted vans around recently liberated neighborhoods.

“We work from 8:00 am until 2:00 pm. The mobile clinics drive to the areas that have been liberated and those that have taken in people displaced by the fighting,” said Amer.

“The doctors see daily 1,250 patients,” in areas such as Mosul al-Jadida, Wadi Hajjar and Al-Mansur, he said.

Authorities have been struggling to ease the hardships of displaced Mosul residents.

The lack of water is another major hurdle and Iraqis are complaining that even with supplies provided by the government there is never enough.

“We have had no water for two months. Not a drop. The taps are dry and our supplies have run out,” said Rai Mohamed Saleh, 21.

According to him, many families have to buy jerrycans from private suppliers, with a 17-liter plastic container costing them a steep 2,500 dinars (two US dollars).

“I am tiler by trade and Rai repairs air conditioners. But we are both unemployed. We’ve run out of money,” said Rai’s friend Omar.

The young man said that before the offensive on west Mosul he had work and earned the equivalent of $800 a month.

On the street nearby, west Mosul residents no longer ruled by the brutal regime of terror group ISIS try to get by as best as they could.

With the ban on cars in place, carts now rule the streets and used to transport goods as well as the elderly who cannot walk, while the lucky few ride bicycles or have donkey-drawn carts.