Sewage Saturates Sadr City as Billions in Investment Fail to Rebuild Iraq

[marmar]

Sewage Saturates Sadr City as Billions Fail to Reconstruct Iraq

By Daniel Williams


Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Spare tires come in handy in Sadr City when lakes of sewage overflow trenches or bubble up from broken underground pipes. Pedestrians pull them from at-ready stacks to create a foot bridge across the excrement.

It’s a routine honed by years of neglect, indifference and, recently, good intentions sucked into a cycle of despair. Almost six years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, sewers in the sprawling Baghdad slum have become the most odorous example of how things don’t get done in Iraq.

While the U.S. has been able to pacify once-roiled areas, electricity is still spotty, drinking water is scarce and health care is limited -- even though America has spent billions of dollars on reconstruction and the Iraqi government has taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue.

“Getting rid of this -- how can I put it delicately -- this waste material has become a dream,” says Kamal Hanjab, 44, the district council chairman. “I fear that when I die, I will be buried in it.”

Raw sewage has become something of an emblem for Sadr City, home to 2 million of Baghdad’s 5 million inhabitants. It has swamped streets since at least the early 1990s, flowing freely even as Saddam built himself eight Taj Mahal-scale palace compounds.

The sludge seeped on after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, when American warriors-turned-plumbers tried repeatedly to unclog the works. In 2004, troops pulled a dead horse from one sewer, according to a report on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Web site. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ad8JHnJwlcUE&refer=home

[SpiralHawk]

1. "But on the bright side, war profits are WAY UP for republicon cronies." - Commander AWOL

"That's right, even though Iraq had NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11, and we have killed over a million innocent civilians, and messed up the infrastructure beyond conception while squandering and stealing the support money, there is a silver lining: MASSIVE MEGABUCKS PROFITS for Republicon Cronies & Contractors.

"You can bet your boootay that we republicons are SMIRKING all the way to the bank, as we leave the carcasses, the rubble, the steenkin sewage, and the chaos in the lap of the sucker DummyKrats. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL & VP Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney (R)

[leftchick]

2. A before and after 2003 in Baghdad photo album

we have totally fucked up yet another country in the name of 'democracy'. What a tragic joke.

http://www.slideshare.net/weblover/iraq-before-and-after-war/

[trollybob]

3. The only solution giving anyone a smidgen of satisfaction

is to prosecute the person responsible for all of this. Who else but a U.S. President is allowed by the international community to invade another country without legal justification and overthrow its government? And what about the murder of Sadaam Hussein's two sons that everyone in the U.S. seemed to think was ok since we demonized them first? I can see why Bush wouldn't want to join the International Court at The Hague, since he'd be the next one in line after Charles Taylor.