Doug Lorimer
"Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below pre-invasion levels even though $16 billion of US taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses told the Senate foreign relations committee", the February 9 New York Times reported.
The NYT report added that of "seven different measures of infrastructure performance presented at the committee hearing by the [US] inspector-general's office, six had slumped below pre-invasion levels: electrical generation capacity, hours of power available in a day in Baghdad, oil and heating oil production, and the numbers of Iraqis with drinkable water and sewage service. Only the hours of power available to Iraqis outside Baghdad had increased over prewar levels."
Iraq was generating 4500 megawatts of power before the US invasion. But by November of last year that generation capacity had dropped to 3995 megawatts, well below the national demand of 7000 megawatts, according to a January report by the US Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Output has slumped despite the $3 billion — of $18.4 billion authorised for Iraq "reconstruction" — that the US Congress allocated for electricity projects.
Before the US-led invasion in March 2003, Baghdad was receiving an average of at least 16 hours of power a day. Today, the city of 7 million gets power for just four hours each day on average.
AP reported on February 12 that in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, electricity is on for eight hours a day on average, compared with three hours on and three hours off before the US-led invasion. Mosul, the country's third-largest city, often receives electricity for only one hour a day.
"With electricity erratic at best, clean drinking water also has become rare" in Iraq's cities, AP reported. "Even if the water is purified at treatment plants, lack of power often means water cannot be pumped to apartment dwellers."
The hardships being endured by most Iraqis will be considerably worsened this year. Reuters reported on February 7 that over the course of 2006, state-controlled domestic fuel prices will be increased tenfold to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands.
Immediately after the December 15 parliamentary elections, the US-backed government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari raised domestic fuel prices by 200%.
In exchange for a $685 million loan granted by the IMF on December 24, the Jaafari government agreed to then tenfold rise in the domestic fuel prices this year.
"We have to meet demands from the IMF, they said the prices should be equal to the prices in neighbouring countries", an Iraqi oil industry official told Reuters on February 6. "The price of [petrol] will gradually increase in 2006 to reach about 600 dinars per litre", said a second Iraqi official.
While 600 dinars (41 US cents) for a litre of petrol is still low by international standards, the prices represent a massive increase over the low, subsidised prices that existed under the ousted government of Saddam Hussein. For the many Iraqi families who earn less than $100 a month, the increased costs for cooking and lighting, as well as transport, will be prohibitive.
Furthermore, monthly food rations — upon which at least 3 million Iraqis, most of them children, are dependent — will also be abolished under the conditions set by the IMF, the February 8 Baghdad Azzaman daily reported. It also reported that the conditions "require that Iraq enter into long-term partnership deals with foreign firms to develop the country's massive oil wealth".
From Green Left Weekly, February 22, 2006.
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