- Millions of Iraqis are frustrated. They are deprived
of fuel, electricity and water, the basics of life. These deprivations
have sparked protests throughout the country, angry voices made louder
by the searing summer heat. The chaos has sharpened demands for improvements
in the crippled infrastructure. Coalition administrators say they recognise
their failure to tell people what is being done to repair the economy.
The World Bank and UN are completing a needs assessment which they will
present to a conference on Iraq in October. It is hoped that the survey
will establish a clearer timetable for the work to be done and build confidence
in the future. Some aid workers in Britain believe reconstruction is proceeding
at a faster pace than in Kosovo and Afghanistan. But their optimism is
little comfort to exasperated Iraqis. Here Jamie Wilson in Baghdad and
Owen Bowcott examine the problems and what is being done to solve them
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- Oil
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- Iraq may be a country floating on oil, but you would
not know it just now, when severe shortages of petrol caused rioting last
weekend in Basra. Things are so bad that the country is importing essential
refined oil products, including petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
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- According to officials of the coalition provisional authority
(CPA), production is rising, the oilfields now producing slightly more
than 1m barrels a day. That is still a long way short of the 2.8m Iraq
was producing before the war and the 3.5m it regularly achieved before
the previous Gulf war. Its oil reserves are the second largest in the world,
after Saudi Arabia.
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- The current shortages are due not to the low output but
to corruption. Even before the war oil smuggling was endemic in Iraq, much
of it authorised by the regime as a way of evading the US sanctions.
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- "The ministry of oil was designed for corruption,
and you cannot change that culture and ethos overnight," Andy Bearpark,
director of operations and infrastructure at the CPA, says.
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- Many of the smuggling routes are still in operation.
On Thursday night 150 road tankers left Baghdad for Basra to alleviate
the fuel crisis in the city. Only three arrived. The others were diverted
and the petrol stolen for the black market or smuggled out of the country
on dhows, barges or tankers.
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- There is an export target of 650,000 barrels of crude
a day this month, increasing to 750,000 next month. The present figure,
however, is around 500,000 barrels.
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- Electricity
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- It is a problem that literally keeps Iraqis awake all
night. With August temperatures soaring above 50C (122F), no electricity
means no fans and no air conditioning, which translates into no sleep.
In April, after the war, the power stations were generating 1,275 megawatts,
29% of the pre-conflict level. Since then the output has doubled to between
3,100MW and 3,500MW.
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- But even before the conflict Iraq's outdated and poorly
maintained power stations and electricity grid were not capable of meeting
the demand. Its full capacity was estimated at 4,500MW. Energy was diverted
to Baghdad under Saddam Hussein's regime to give the capital almost constant
power, and other parts of the country had to cope with three hours on,
three hours off. The CPA is currently running a similar system, but giving
hospitals and other essential services priority.
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- The shortage has been exacerbated by the systematic theft
of copper from power lines - indeed, so much copper has been smuggled out
of Iraq that it has affected world prices. In Basra bribery of sub-station
managers, either to divert the power to one area over another or to switch
it off altogether, has also been a factor.
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- Of the $680m (£425m) the CPA has allocated for
construction, $229m will be used for electric power rehabilitation. But
according to Mr Bearpark, Iraq will need to build another five power stations
to meet the peak summer demand of 7,000MW and keep the power on 24 hours
a day. That could cost $10bn and take as long as three years.
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- Security
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- Talk to any Baghdadis and once they have finished complaining
about the electricity the conversation always turns to security. It may
have been brought about by repression and state-sponsored violence, but
under Saddam the crime rate in Iraq was very low. When he went, so did
the iron fist of the police state, and suddenly people have found themselves
in the middle of an unprecedented crime wave. Murder, robbery, kidnapping,
rape and carjackings are the talk of the city. Last month the Baghdad's
mortuary handled 47 times as many gunshot deaths as in the same period
last year.
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- Officials blame a variety of factors for the crime spree:
people getting a taste for looting, the settling of old scores from the
Saddam era,. and the disappearance of the police force. Officials are also
quick to point out that Saddam released thousands of criminals from the
jails in October.
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- The former New York police chief Bernard Kerik has been
given the job of overseeing the rebuilding of the Iraqi police. He says
there are 5,000 officers back on the streets of the capital, and more are
graduating from the newly formed police academy every day. Arrests are
up, and he says people are more confident about taking to the streets.
But many officers are badly equipped and there are not enough uniforms,
guns or vehicles.
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- Paul Bremer, the American administrator, has set a target
of 18 months to bring the force up to a strength of 65,000. But one official
said it was "hellishly expensive" as it required 6,500 non-Iraqi
trainers. The CPA has yet to decide how to find the money.
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- A 15,000-strong Iraqi civil defence force is expected
to enter service by the end of August. It will support the coalition forces
by protecting key installations from further looting and sabotage.
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- Hospitals
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- They are filthy, decrepit and the last place you would
want to go if were ill. Nevertheless the CPA says Iraq's hospitals are
now back to or above pre-war levels.
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- Many of those in Baghdad were looted during the final
days of the war, and essential equipment taken. But as in so many areas
of Iraqi life, the electricity shortage remains one of the biggest problems:
the hospitals are frequently forced to close for lack of power.
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- The CPA says there is a programme in place to upgrade
them. Some will be knocked down, others refurbished, but officials estimate
that it will take five years for healthcare in Iraq to reach the level
of other countries in the Middle East.
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- Most of the work is being done through the Iraqi health
ministry and the salaries of nurses and doctors are now being paid. The
Red Cross has drawn back from providing emergency relief after one of its
workers was killed on the road to Hilla in July.
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- Water
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- Despite much of the country being desert, the one thing
there is no shortage of in Iraq is water. Two great rivers, the Tigris
and the Euphrates, flow almost the length of the country. But the water
supply relies on electricity, so when there is no electricity there is
no water.
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- As the power has improved priority has been given to
the water pumping stations, and according to the CPA in a lot of areas
the supply is back to pre-war levels.
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- As for the quality, one official said he would not drink
it but was quite happy to clean his teeth in it. Health problems associated
with poor water quality did not materialise in the way officials had feared,
and there were no big outbreaks of cholera.
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- In Baghdad about 80% of the capacity has already been
restored. UN tankers are delivering water to less well supplied districts.
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- The CPA hopes to have the water system fully operational
by the beginning of Ramadan in October, but the sewage system is a different
matter: the main sewage treatment plants were stripped bare in the post-war
looting.
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- At the moment most of the sewage is flowing back into
the rivers in an almost raw state, and officials estimate that it will
take up to a year to rectify the situation.
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- Transport
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- Most goods in Iraq travel by roads which are relatively
undamaged by the war. The UN is sending fuel and water tankers across the
country with few problems.
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- Food distribution is said to be up to 99% of the capacity
achieved under the UN's former oil for food aid programme. It, too, goes
by road.
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- The container cranes and the customs and immigration
departments at Umm Qasr are now working, allowing passenger ships to enter
the port.
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- The CPA said it would open Baghdad and Basra airports
only when they were satisfied that all their security, customs and immigration
concerns had been met.
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- Basra is expected to open in September, sooner than Baghdad,
because there have been several attempted missile attacks on military aircraft
taking off from the capital.
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- Three main bridges, at Tikrit, Mat and Khazir, were destroyed
during the war. Reconstruction contracts are due to be finalised at the
end of the month, and the rebuilding of all three should be complete by
March next year, at an estimated cost of $12m.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1020038,00.html
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