Water Crisis in Tajikistan Due to Heavy Storms

[senorpepr]

More than half a million people have been left without drinking water in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan.

Emma Griffiths reports, the Central Asian country has appealed for international aid.

Last week heavy rains caused large mud slides upstream of the Tajik capital Dushanbe.

Debris has made the city's drinking water brown and muddy. Doctors have deemed it unsafe to drink, warning of a possible typhoid outbreak.

The six hundred thousand residents of the Central Asian city are relying on meager supplies of fresh water delivered by truck from neighboring regions.

Those deliveries have also been made more difficult because the storms destroyed several bridges and a large section of one of the country's main highways.

The Tajik government has appealed for help from the United Nations and the Red Cross.