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'Baghdad ''drowning in sewage''
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Baghdad

BAGHDAD is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely
powerless, an Iraqi official said today in a grim assessment of
services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion. One of three sewage treatment plants is out of commission, one is
working at stuttering capacity while a pipe blockage in the third
means sewage is forming a foul lake so large it can be seen "as a big
black spot on Google Earth," said Tahseen Sheikhly, civilian
spokesman for the Baghdad security plan.

Mr Sheikhly said water pipes, where they exist, are so old it is not
possible to pump water at a sufficient rate to meet demands - leaving
many neighbourhoods parched.

A sharp deficit of 3000 megawatts of electricity adds to the woes of
residents, who have to rely on neighbourhood generators to light up
their lives and heat their homes.

"Sewerage, water and electricity are our three main problems," said
Mr Sheikhly.

Many of these problems date back to the Saddam Hussein regime when
not enough attention was paid to basic infrastructure, he said, and
insurgency, sectarian violence and vandalism since the US-led
invasion in March 2003 had further ravaged services in the capital.

More positively, he said, the extensive Baghdad security plan, known
as Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law) and launched on February
14 last year, was allowing services to be gradually restored.

"After the destruction, there is now the reconstruction," Mr Sheikhly
said. "We have solved many of the security problems; now we can focus
on rebuilding."

Education and health across Iraq had both seen improvements,
according to US military commander Brigadier-General Jeffrey Dorko of
the US Gulf Regional Division, which is engaged in reconstruction
projects.

Brig-Gen Dorko said 76 new health clinics - 21 of them in Baghdad -
had been built while 1885 new schools had been constructed
countrywide and another 1604 repaired.

He said the demand for electricity was likely to outstrip supply for
several years because many Iraqi power stations had been damaged or
destroyed and commissioning new ones would take anything up to four
years.

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