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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (168788)	8/12/2005 2:54:50 AM
From: geode00	Respond to of 281500

Iraqis thirst for water and power Lack of basic services is prompting growing protest aimed at Iraqi officials. 8/11/05 By Dan Murphy \| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BAGHDAD - This summer, the third since the fall of Baghdad, has been the worst yet when it comes to basic services. Interruptions to electricity and water supplies - caused by both decay and sabotage - are driving up the frustrations of millions of Iraqis. While last summer public anger was directed at the US government, today it's as likely to be aimed directly at Iraq's interim government and officials.... $20 billion for electricity The US is in the process of spending about $19 billion on long-term water and electricity projects, but about a quarter of this money has been diverted to security because of the raging insurgency, US officials sau. Even when electricity generation is improved at the power plant, transformers and cables are easy insurgent targets, with the net result that less power gets to Iraqi homes. "Security increases costs by 10 to 25 percent, so we're not getting our value for money. Security was factored in at a rate of 9 percent - we didn't know it would be this much," Brig. Gen. Bill McCoy told Reuters during a tour this week of projects north of Baghdad. "We've had to downsize in some areas. It took $3 billion out of water and $500 million out of electricity," he said. Iraqi officials said last month that the country would need an estimated $20 billion over the next five years to restore full electric power capacity and keep power flowing to the entire country. Iraqi Electricity Minister Mohsen Shalash seemed confident that Iraq would be able to restore full power within two years and that daily demand - estimated by the US General Accounting Office to reach 8,500 megawatts this summer - will climb to 18,000 megawatts by 2010. Coping with the heat But Faten Abed wants reliable electricity and more water now. Her hair is unwashed and she's dragging after another sleepless night in her two-room apartment that has been turned into an "oven" by summertime Baghdad's 115-degree temperatures. "We turn on the television and all we see is the politicians saying 'I'm going to do this,' or 'I'm going to do that,' " she says. "We've stopped believing anything they have to say. I had hope before the election that things would be different, but the political parties are losing all of their credibility."... Turki says he has a number of friends who have shut small businesses because of intermittent power, and worries that a weak economy will lead to an even less stable Iraq than the one now. "We have two problems: the terrorists and the government that is stealing from us," he explains. He gestures to a tangle of wires hanging from a utility pole outside his shop, which he said exploded about a month ago. A repairman from the Ministry of Public Works showed up a few days later and then demanded bribes from all of the businessmen on the street to get electricity to the neighborhood up and running again. "We wouldn't pay - we're fed up with this stuff. The Americans can't fix it and the government is just out for themselves. What did we vote for anyway?" csmonitor.com