- Too much money earmarked for rebuilding Iraq is being
diverted to tackle security demands, the US official in charge of post-war
reconstruction says.
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- William Taylor, who heads the Iraq Reconstruction Management
Office, said rebuilding the country was a costly and dangerous business.
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- Mr Taylor disclosed that 295 American contractors and
their security guards had been killed since April last year.
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- He said there was "a long way to go" in providing
adequate services to Iraqis.
-
- A United Nations survey released earlier this month found
that Iraqi living standards had been plummeting with only just over half
of the population having access to safe drinking water.
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- Oil suffering
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- Mr Taylor said the process of rebuilding Iraq after the
US-led war and previous sanctions had only just begun.
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- "We recognise that Iraq is a risky place to do business,"
he said acknowledging that security costs had spiralled because of continued
violence by Iraqi insurgents.
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- "Because of the increase in insurgent activity,
contractors have had to include better site protection, hardened vehicles
for personnel transportation and trained security teams," he said,
adding this accounted for up to 16% of all project costs.
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- "Even oil companies, which usually go to dangerous
places, are waiting," he said.
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- The official conceded that the money set aside by the
US was limited and that Iraq would need foreign investment.
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- Damning survey
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- More than two years since the war, Iraqis still suffer
from daily power cuts, and - in some areas - from contamination of drinking
water by sewage.
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- In 2004, a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, some
22,000 households were questioned by the UN about their lives.
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- The survey found that only just over a third of households
were connected to a sewage network - and that almost a quarter of young
children were chronically malnourished.
-
- The report says that while the infrastructure exists
to allow access to basic supplies - like electricity and clean running
water - it is not reliable.
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4569833.stm
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