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.
