Real benefits still elude residents

Efforts to rebuild devastated Iraqi towns and villages are failing to have a significant impact, council leaders in Diyala province have told Gulf News.

Since the invasion more than two years ago, the US has spent millions of dollars on small-scale projects to improve electricity distribution and boost water supplies in Kazaniya, near the Iran-Iraq border.

But local politicians insisted residents had yet to see any real benefits, complaining that although the area has been relatively peaceful, severe economic hardship persisted.

Ali Hussain Abid, a local official, said: "We still haven't any pure water for drinking. It is a simple service that people have a right to expect, but we have to buy in our supplies.

"Homes are overcrowded, there are still no proper roads, no healthcare and of the 12,000 people here, 70 per cent are unemployed."

Ahmad Hussain, another council member, said there was little hope the Iraqi government would come to their aid. "They can't solve our problems because they cannot even solve problems in Baghdad they have bigger things to worry about than us.

The council, set up under the old Coalition Provisional Authority, has been cooperating with the American military, the only source of funding in the region.

However, US soldiers in charge of distributing cash admit there is not enough to go round. Captain Chris Chang, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, said serious compromises had been made.

Fareed Eisa, a chief engineer for the town and neighbouring Mandali, said electricity supplies were better than a year ago but called for more simple upgrades. "The system has been left to rot for 50 years. The least we need is seven kilometres of new cabling and new pylons."

He estimated it would cost $100,000 (around Dh 367,000) to complete the work and give a more regular power supply to homes. "We asked the coalition for the money and they said no. We asked the Iraqi government and they didn't even answer," he said.

Another problem for the council are new bureaucratic hoops the Americans have recently introduced. Up until last week, officers on the ground could give approval for projects costing up to $10,000, and hand out the cash. Now all spending has to be approved by central authorities, complicating and slowing the process down further.