Almost 30 thousand people poisoned by water in Iraq's Basra

The water crisis in the Iraqi province of Basra has put at least 27,000 people in hospital, First Deputy Speaker of Iraq's House of Representatives Hassan Karim al-Kaabi said.

A health crisis in Basra has also affected a top football club from Baghdad. The Al-Hussein team travelled 600 km south to play Naft Al-Junoob in the Iraqi Premier League, but players were hospitalised by polluted water.

The visiting club had taken precautions ahead of Monday's fixture, administrative manager Fadhel Zaghir said - but to little avail.

"We brought a lot of mineral water with us from Baghdad but it seems the water used by the players to wash themselves and their clothes was polluted," AFP cited him as saying.