Fighting between Iraqi troops and Islamic State militants has cut water supplies across a large part of Mosul, where poorer families are already struggling to feed themselves, and a local official said the increasingly encircled city was in crisis.
Water was cut to 650,000 people - or 40 percent of residents - when a pipeline was hit during fighting between the jihadists and US-backed Iraqi government forces trying to crush them in their northern Iraq stronghold, a local official said. "We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe," said Hussam al-Abar, a member of Mosul's Nineveh provincial council, adding that 1.5 million people were still inside Mosul.
He said the pipeline ran through a contested part of the city and could not be reached by repair teams. "Basic services such as water, electricity, health, food are non-existent," he said, standing in an eastern suburb while mortars were fired inside the city. The battle for Mosul has already raged for six weeks. An alliance of Iraqi forces, backed by US-led air power, have surrounded it and elite troops have seized eastern districts, but face deadly and determined resistance.
Aid workers say a full siege is developing and fear that the longer the conflict drags on, the more civilians will suffer. "Key informants are telling us that poor families are struggling to put sufficient food on their tables," UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Lise Grande, told Reuters. "This is very worrying." Others are hoarding and hiding food as they expect prices to rise further.
The capture of Mosul, Islamic State's last major urban stronghold in Iraq, is seen as crucial towards dismantling the caliphate which the militants declared in Iraq and Syria after sweeping through Sunni populated northern and western Iraqi provinces in 2014. Iraqi government and Kurdish forces surround the city from the north, east and south, while Popular Mobilisation forces - a coalition of Iranian-backed Shia groups - are trying to close in from the west.
Last week Popular Mobilisation fighters cut the supply route to Mosul from the Syrian half of Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, driving up prices in the city. With the last supply route cut off, basic commodity prices in Mosul could double "in the short term", said a humanitarian worker, who declined to be identified. Some 100,000 Iraqi government troops, Kurdish security forces and mainly Shia militiamen are participating in the assault on Mosul that began on October 17, with air and ground support from a US-led international military coalition.
Iraqi forces moving from the east have captured about a quarter of Mosul, trying to advance to the Tigris river that runs through its centre, in the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "In a worst case, we envision that families who are already in trouble in Mosul will find themselves in even more acute need." Grande said. "The longer it takes to liberate Mosul, the harder conditions become for families."