Khaled Sulaiman While water, sanitation and personal hygiene are the primary means of defense to combat COVID-19, Iraqi cities, towns, and villages suffer from severe pollution of water sources for drinking and daily use, particularly in areas that suffer more than others from the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic. In the Al-Mudaina district, located north of the city of Basra in the south of the country, a population of 255,000 people suffer from skin rashes due to polluted water.