Hartford Courant (Connecticut) March 16, 2004
The Rebuilding Of Iraq
One Year After The Start Of The War;
Country Struggles To Find Footing After Third War In 20 Years
BRIDGES
Reconstruction of bridges damaged in the war has focused on three key spans:
* AL MAT BRIDGE, a pair of dual-lane bridges, is a key link on Highway 10, the main route between Iraq and Jordan. One span of the bridge was reopened for two-way traffic in February; the other span is expected to open this month.
* KHAZIR BRIDGE, a pair of dual-lane bridges over the Khazir River, is on the main road between Mosul and Arbil. It is a key to the supply of food and fuel to northern Iraq. One span was reopened for two-way traffic in February; the other is expected to reopen this month.
* TIKRIT BRIDGE, a single two-lane span over the Tigris River, is on the road from Baghdad to the northern oil fields of Kirkuk. The target date for completion is May.
Proven Oil Reserves (2002) In billions of barrels
Saudi Arabia -- 262.8
Canada -- 180
Iraq -- 112
Iran -- 99
U.A.E. -- 97.8
Kuwait -- 96.5
OIL
Iraq's proven oil reserves -- at least 112 billion barrels -- are rivaled only by Saudi Arabia and Canada. Most of the oil is in the north, at Kirkuk, with sizable quantities at Rumaila in the south. There are 73 discovered oil fields in Iraq, but only 15 have been developed.
* Getting to the oil: Oil wells are sparsely scattered over the fields; there are about 2,300 wells drilled in Iraq, compared with 1 million in Texas. Before the war, Iraq pumped about 2.8 million barrels a day; after about $1 billion in repairs undertaken by the United States and Iraq, the country is producing 2.3 million to 2.5 million barrels a day. Another $1 billion is expected to be spent this year on restoring and upgrading oil fields and refineries.
* Fighting sabotage: The country's 10 refineries and 3,700 miles of pipelines have been the targets of persistent attacks that have shut down the major northern pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey. In late 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority formed a special police force to monitor and guard pipelines and refineries. Attacks on the pipeline dropped to eight in January and February, down from 47 in the last three months of 2003, coalition officials said.
* Transporting it: On the Persian Gulf, Iraq has three tanker terminals that were damaged or destroyed in wars. One has been operating at about two-thirds of its capacity, and another started loading oil again in February.
SEAPORTS
Iraq has six ports but only one deep-water harbor: Umm Qasr. Ships sunk during the IranIraq war had partially blocked the entrance to the Umm Qasr port, and silt had built up in the channel. Rehabilitation began after the 2003 war, and the port reopened to commercial traffic in June 2003. It was dredged to an average depth of about 40 feet; previously it had been 25-30 feet deep. Its grain-receiving facility was renovated and now processes up to 600 metric tons of grain an hour. The port handles cargo from more than 40 ships per month.
RAILROADS
Baghdad's three railways are relatively functional: Baghdad-Kirkuk-Irbil, Baghdad-MaaqalUmm Qasr, and the Baghdad-Mosul-Yurubiyah line that extends to Turkey. Work is underway to rebuild tracks near Umm Qasr and Basra to handle freight transport from the port at Umm Qasr. The single-track line has not been upgraded since the 1950s. The project is expected to be done by the end of this year.
AIRPORTS
All of Iraq's 108 airports, including international airports at Baghdad and Basra, and domestic airports at Mosul, Kirkuk and Irbil, are outdated and sustained damage in the war. There have been no international commercial flights for 13 years. Rehabilitation work is underway at Baghdad International Airport to prepare for commercial traffic. The airport is handling 30 non-military arrivals and departures a day. Similar work is underway at Basra International Airport to prepare for commercial operations.
UTILITIES AND SERVICES
PHONE SERVICE
The war heavily damaged the system, which previously had served about 1.2 million Iraqis. In Baghdad alone, nearly half the 540,000 telephone lines were knocked out of service.
In December, Baghdad's largest exchange reopened, and a new satellite gateway system restored the ability to make international calls.
A USAID project is repairing the national fiber optic network from Mosul to Umm Qasr, connecting 20 cities to Baghdad.
Three companies are licensed to provide cellphone service in Iraq, with about 200,000 subscribers combined.
SEWAGE TREATMENT
Iraq has 13 major sewage treatment plants. Baghdad's three treatment plants, which together make up three-quarters of the nation's sewage treatment capacity, are inoperable, allowing the waste to flow untreated into the Tigris River. In the rest of the country, most treatment plants were only partially operational before the war, and water pumped through them is still largely untreated, especially in the south. The three main treatment plants in Baghdad are expected to be in operation by October, while plants in Diwaniyah, Karbala and Hillah in south central Iraq are expected to be online by May; work at the plant in Najaf is expected to be completed by December.
ELECTRICITY
Iraq's power plants are generating between 3,900 and 5,000 megawatts of electricity per day, surpassing the pre-war level. The goal of rehabilitation efforts is to reach 6,000 megawatts by this summer, and 9,000 by the summer of 2005. Rehabilitation work continues at two main thermal power plants: Doura in Baghdad and Baiji in northern Iraq. Three new power plants are under construction at Kirkuk, Mussayyib and South Baghdad. Work is underway to rebuild about 127 miles of the 400-kilovolt transmission network from Az Zubayr, on the southern coast, north to Nasiriyah.
WATER SUPPLY
Until the 1991 Gulf War, safe water was accessible to more than 95 percent of the urban population of Iraq and 75 percent of the rural populations. Iraq's operating capacity for its 140 major water treatment facilities was 1.3 million cubic yards a day before the war. Today, the facilities operate at about 65 percent of that level. USAID projects are rehabilitating water systems in Baghdad, Najaf, Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as the Sweet Water Canal that serves Basra, with a goal of providing potable water to most of the country's residents.
QUALITY OF LIFE
HEALTH CARE By all accounts, the Iraqi health care system is struggling to recover from years of U.S. sanctions and looting last spring that left most hospitals and clinics in shambles.
Iraq has a new health ministry, headed by British-trained Dr. Khodeir Abbas, that is trying to put the pieces back together. The biggest problems are a lack of basic supplies, such as antibiotics; and outdated equipment. Many hospitals lack items as basic as defibrillators.
A recent report by the World Health Organization, in conjunction with UNICEF, said the levels of malnutrition, diarrhea and mortality are roughly the same as they were before the war. Many people are suffering from diseases such as tuberculosis, brought on by a lack of preventive medicine.
%% Health professionals per 100,000 people (1998)
Doctors Nurses Dentists
Iraq 55 236 5.7
U.S. 279 972 59.8
%%
EDUCATION
The Coalition Provisional Authority says the U.S. has provided $63 million to improve Iraqi schools. Some Iraqis claim the money has been used to make only cosmetic improvements to the structures, such as a coat of paint, while books and other basic supplies are lacking.
Updating the textbooks, which were written to glorify Saddam Hussein and his ruling Baathist party, will be difficult. But teachers' salaries have been raised dramatically from $5.33-$13.33 a month to $66.66- $333.33 a month.
SPORTS AND RECREATION
In 2002, the International Olympic Committee suspended Iraq from participating in the 2004 Summer Olympics following reports that Uday Hussein had been torturing athletes.
On Feb. 29, the IOC agreed to allow Iraq to compete under their country's flag when the games come to Athens this summer. Iraq is expected to send up to 27 athletes.
Four wrestlers have been invited to train at the U.S. Olympic training facility in Colorado.
MARSHLANDS
The government of Saddam Hussein drained most of the inhabited marshlands of southern Iraq, set in the Tigris and Euphrates river basin and reputed to be the site of the biblical Garden of Eden, by drying up or diverting the feeder streams and rivers, then setting fires in the area. Most of the "marsh Arabs," who numbered up to 300,000 before 1991, fled to refugee camps in Iran or dispersed throughout Iraq, and more than 90 percent of the wetlands was reduced to salt-encrusted wasteland.
Hussein took this action after the marsh Arabs joined the failed Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991. An estimated 10,000 people remain in the marshes, many of them suffering from malnutrition, contaminated drinking water, and a lack of health care.
A $4 million program is underway to rebuild the wetlands and provide social and economic assistance to marsh dwellers, though officials say it is unlikely the marshes can be fully restored. But where only about 7 percent of the original marshlands remained after the destruction, about 30 percent to 40 percent have been reflooded owing to a combination of factors, including heavier than normal snowfall in the north, the deliberate destruction of dams in the area, the opening of gates by the Ministry of Water Resources, and the release of water by Iran from the east.
ECONOMY AND SECURITY
PROTECTING THE PEOPLE
* IRAQI CIVIL DEFENSE CORPS
Provides site and route security, joint patrolling with coalition forces, natural-disaster aid, and general assistance, all under the command of coalition forces. By mid-February, it comprised more than 25,000 people, with 3,600 additional Iraqis in training. Corps members are armed with AK-47 rifles and equipped with jeeps and trucks. Last October, coalition soldiers relinquished security duties of a major ammunition supply point, Objective Jaguar, in northern Iraq to the defense corps. In December, Iraqi and coalition officials announced plans to create an Iraqi paramilitary unit to help fight insurgents, with each of the five largest political parties in the Governing Council contributing up to 170 fighters.
* NEW IRAQI ARMY
Primary duties are border protection, securing roads and installations, and clearing unexploded ordnance and mines. Recruiting began in July 2003. The first battalion of 700 soldiers graduated last October. By mid-February, nearly 2,000 were operational and more than 1,700 were in training. The goal for year's end is three divisions comprising nine brigades of 27 battalions, with about 40,000 soldiers, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
* IRAQI POLICE SERVICE
Provides basic police services, including highway patrol and site security. Officers can help coalition forces on raids but are not responsible for anti-terrorism or other investigations. U.S. officials say the number of police reached 75,000 just last month. In early February, a coalition official said the crime rate in Baghdad had declined 39 percent in two months, and in Basra by 70 percent.
* FACILITIES PROTECTION SERVICE
Responsible for protection of government buildings and personnel, and includes oil and electricity police and port security. Available for private hire. As of mid-February, more than 70,000 guards were on duty.
* BORDER POLICE, CUSTOMS, IMMIGRATION
Number of officers and inspectors has reached 23,000.
GOODS AND MERCHANDISE
Items such as satellite dishes and satellite phones, outlawed under Hussein, are readily available, as are many other previously-hard-to get electronic items. In fact, access to just about anything isn't a problem.
Paying for it is another issue. Prices of everything from televisions to tomatoes have skyrocketed. People on the U.S. payroll have no problem with the prices. But others are struggling to make ends meet, and there is a growing resentment among the "havenots."
CURRENCY
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq used two currencies: the Iraqi dinar in most of the country, and the "Swiss dinar" in the north. Beginning Oct. 15, one currency was introduced for all of Iraq: the new Iraqi dinar. One old dinar could be exchanged for one new Iraqi dinar; one Swiss dinar for 150 new Iraqi dinars. The new money is more durable and comes in denominations of 50, 250, 1000, 5000, 10000 and 25,000 dinar notes. It also includes anti-fraud features. Saddam banknotes became worthless Jan. 15, and with them went the design featuring the image of Saddam Hussein. Each of the six new notes has a different design. The front of the 10,000 dinar note, shown above, features a picture of Abu Ali Hasan Ibn alHaitham, a physicist and mathematician born in Basra in 965. The exchange rate of the new Iraqi dinar against the U.S. dollar is roughly 1 dinar to $3.35 U.S.
SOURCES: Coalition Provisional Authority; USAID; Bechtel; New York Times; Associated Press; Reuters; Asia Times; Oil & Gas Journal Exchange; Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; U.S. Energy Information Administration; World Bank; United Nations; CIA; Reliefweb; GlobalSecurity.org, U.S. State Department, U.S. Mission to the United Nations; Department of Energy; ABC News; BBC; World Health Organization; WWW.OANDA.COM/CONVERT/CLASSIC
© Copyright 2004, The Hartford Courant Company
