By DPA
London : A "humanitarian crisis" is unfolding in Iraq where a third of the population is in need of immediate emergency aid, the British aid agency Oxfam said in a report Monday.
The report, drawn up together with Iraqi NGOs, said the government was failing to provide essentials such as water, sanitation, food, and shelter for up to eight million people.
It warned that continuing violence was masking a humanitarian crisis that had grown worse since the invasion in 2003.
Four million Iraqis had been uprooted by the violence, the report said; more than two million people had been displaced inside the country, while a further two million had fled to neighbouring countries.
The survey recognized that armed conflict was the greatest problem facing Iraqis but it found a population "increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition".
It suggested that 70 percent of Iraq's population of 26.5 million were without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent before the invasion. Only 20 percent had access to effective sanitation.
Nearly 30 percent of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15 percent of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat.
"Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International.
"Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty," he said.
Hobbs said that despite the violence, the Iraqi government and the international community could do more to meet people's needs.
"The Iraqi government must commit to helping Iraq's poorest citizens, including the internally displaced, by extending food parcel distribution and cash payments to the vulnerable," he said.
"Western donors must work through Iraqi and international aid organisations and develop more flexible systems to ensure these organisations operate effectively and efficiently."