IRAQ: Government aid for marshland children
BAGHDAD, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) - The Iraqi government has earmarked US$30 million for water and education projects designed to help children in impoverished parts of Iraq’s southern marshland area, according to a senior aide to the minister of state for the marshlands.
The funding will allow the construction of 70 water purification plants and 48 schools, said Abbas al-Saidi, an adviser to Iraq’s minister of state for marshlands.
Al-Saidi said the projects would cover three southern provinces as follows: 16 water plants and 15 schools in Basra; 21 water plants and 16 schools in Maysan; and 33 water plants and 17 schools in Nassiriyah.
The ministry plans to spend $13.3 million on water plants and $16.6 million on schools. The tendering process should be done this month and all work completed by the end of 2010.
Though small in scale, the aid would be a step in the right direction for the marshland peoples who had been neglected “for decades”, he said.
“A major achievement”
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 4 May hailed the initiative as the first government investment to focus exclusively on improving children’s welfare in the area. “This is a major achievement by the government as it’s the first investment of its kind to target children - not only in Iraq but also globally,” Sikander Khan, a UNICEF representative in Iraq, said in a statement.
“This sets the standard and will be the beginning of a series of child-friendly investments… specifically improving their prospects of survival,” Khan added.
According to UNICEF, “some 34 percent of women in the Marshlands are illiterate, compared with 24 percent at the national level, and school enrolment in rural areas of the region is at least 30 percent lower than in urban areas. Around 81 percent of households are not connected to the general water network, compared with 26 percent at the national level with, in some villages, up to 99 percent of people relying on drinking water to be delivered by truck.”
Al-Saidi estimated the total marshland population at about 1.2 million, with about half a million living in rural areas.
UNICEF said the water projects were designed to serve around 250,000 people, including about 125,000 children, and around 12,000 children would benefit from the new schools.
Both al-Saidi and UNICEF spokesman Jaya Murthy told IRIN UNICEF was likely to add $6 million to the initiative - for the reconstruction of health centres, schools, and for school supplies.
“Painkillers”
The Iraqi government announced in March that it would build 5,000 houses for as many families in the marshlands, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has announced a $47 million scheme to develop the area.
However, Sheikh Mohammed al-Ebadi, who heads the Maysan provincial committee to revive the marshlands, sees all these moves as “mere painkillers”. What is being offered is not essential, and what is needed is much greater investment in roads, electricity and sewage networks, he said, adding that there was “no clear strategy”.
The marshlands suffered severe damage in the 1990s when former President Saddam Hussein diverted the Tigris and Euphrates rivers away from the marshes in retaliation for a failed uprising by Shia Muslims in the area.
In 2001 the UN Environment Programme reported that 90 percent of the marshlands had been lost, forcing some 300,000 inhabitants out of the area. Since 2003, efforts to restore the marshes have gradually revived the area, though reduced flows from the main rivers are causing problems.
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Education, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation
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Copyright © IRIN 2009
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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