Alex de Campi: Gojira!

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14.12.04 Iraq: Fables of the Reconstruction

"No longer a member of the interim government, I am no longer constrained by a paranoid media team in Whitehall. I am sad to say that the provision of utilities and essential services in Iraq is now even worse than a year ago. They have less electricity and water than before the war, and still the Electricity Minister announced that they had 8,000 MW, when in truth they only have 3,200 MW today which translates into two hours on and six hours off. What angers me is that the project to deliver 32MW through four turbines to the petrochemical plant in Basra (managed by the US administration in Baghdad) has spent US$28m and they have not yet repaired even one turbine. For the same price they could have bought four new units. We also heard that the project to install 250 MW in Nasariya cost US$120m and the turbines blew up within twenty-four hours of commissioning.

"The only project that may come to fruition in southern Iraq is a 40MW project in Al Muthanna in the Japanese sector that was implemented by our team despite massive dis-agreements with Baghdad. Only now the Ministry of Electricity and Ministry of Oil have decided that there may not be gas for the turbine, nor funds to repair the gas pipeline! To add insult to injury, the Japanese aid agency that has taken months to act has decided to install 20 small diesel generators to provide 60MW when there is a shortage of diesel fuel rather than assist in repairing the pipeline. Instead they will run them on heavy fuel oil, which means that within two years the machines will be destroyed. They proudly announced that they will be installed by 2007! Furthermore the massive aid and reconstruction promised by the US administration is officially on hold until the security situation improves and re-allocations are being made from infrastructure to security measures.

"It seems that they have learned nothing. All the Iraqis want are jobs, electricity, water, healthcare and fuel for their cars. In the same time we could have planned, started and commissioned a 1,000MW power station delivering RO water, electricity and much needed jobs. My impression of the UK, US and Japanese governments is at the lowest it has ever been. It is so sad and I think the world is weary of the catalogue of catastrophes that occur daily in Iraq."

- An email from a friend who was part of the British Government's reconstruction efforts in Iraq. He has since gone private.

( 11:19 AM )

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