Rebels deny Tripoli water supply cut despite shortages

Libyan rebels on Saturday denied that deposed leader Moamer Kadhafi had cut off Tripoli's water supply, which arrives from southern deserts, amid shortages in the capital, including at the main hospital.

"The water has not been cut off," National Transitional Council spokesman Mahmud Shammam told AFP. "We have enough supplies of drinking water; we have some technical problems but we are addressing the situation."

Many Tripoli residents have complained that their water has been cut off since the capital fell to rebels on Tuesday, while rumours are rife that Kadhafi has poisoned the water in the city of around two million.

The morgue at Tripoli's main hospital also has no water, an AFP correspondent said, with workers there struggling to clean up the blood from those killed in days of fighting in the capital.

A worker at the morgue told AFP Kadhafi had cut off the water supply from desert ground water at Jebel Hasuna, around 700 kilometres (450 miles) to the south of Tripoli, through the so-called Great Manmade River Project.

An engineer at the Corinthia Hotel, where many foreign journalists are staying since the capital fell, said that "Tripoli has no water."

"We have a reservoir; it's very big but we don't know how long it will last. Hopefully until they decide to open the supply again," he said, asking not to be named.

Another Tripoli resident said the water problem stemmed from a lack of electricity, with the city suffering regular outages that prevented pumping into reservoirs.