Iraq Good News Roundup

[Brad]

Blogger Chrenkoff does a great job of finding the news that doesn't make "the news."

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Conservative activist and commentator L. Brent Bozell III recently wrote about an encounter with a veteran:

My son's friend Todd Jones just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. At a celebratory gathering at his parents' home, we chatted a while, and I asked him what he thought were the biggest problems facing the military. Without hesitating, he shot back: "The terrorists and the media."

For Bozell, this pretty much confired what many others, on both side of the camera, have been saying lately:

In a rare moment of balance on CBS, Army Capt. Christopher Vick echoed that sentiment: "I think it's hard for Americans to get up every day and turn on the news and see the horrible things that are going on here, because there's no focus on the good things that go on. What they see is another car bomb went off." This kind of coverage is exactly what the terrorists are seeking to achieve, believes Vick.

Mark Yost, who served in the Navy during the Reagan years, caused a stir in media circles for stating the obvious in an editorial in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: "to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up."

On CNN's "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz asked Frank Sesno, a former Washington bureau chief for CNN, about the Yost column. Sesno acknowledged you get more depth from print coverage, but suggested "even then, the bias is towards that which is going wrong, that which is blowing up and that which is not working." He said Americans ask: "Is anything getting rebuilt? Are they really democrats over there? How engaged are the Sunnis? Could I see an interview with any of these founding fathers and founding mothers of this new emerging country? Can you find that? You'll have a hard time doing it."

The question is not whether bad things happening in Iraq should be reported back home - they should, and there are clearly many of them; a fact that no one is denying - but whether there are some positive developments taking place that should also be receive the media's attention. Judging by the coverage, the media's answer seems to be, not very often. Whether that's because such positive developments are objectively rare, or whether it's because they are deemed not important and consequential enough, remains an open question.

But just in case the media has made a wrong judgment in this matter, here are the past two weeks' worth of under-reported and often overlooked good news stories from Iraq.

SOCIETY: With the constitutional process underway, and another election on the horizon, there are growing efforts by the Sunni leadership to make sure that this time their community does participate in the political process:

Sunni preachers have called on Iraq's Sunni Arabs to take part in upcoming elections, signalling a possible new trend towards joining a Shi'ite dominated political process that Sunni insurgents have rejected...

"It is a duty for all those here to take part in the upcoming elections so that we are not politically marginalised," imam Abdul-Sattar al-Jumaili told a crowd of some 600 people in Falluja, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

"I call upon you to register your names in Falluja and other cities. You should not feel awkward about voting since you will be helping to remove the occupiers and embarrass those who benefited from the last election," he told a packed mosque.

Many prominent Sunnis have said the January boycott was a mistake since it limited their ability to influence the future shape of the country, now run by a Shi'ite-led government...

A message similar to that in Falluja was delivered at the "mother of all battles" mosque in Baghdad.

"We have to be engaged with our brothers in this country by a calm dialogue," imam Mahmoud al-Sumaida'i told a congregation at Friday prayers in the large shrine.

"Therefore let us all participate in this dialogue in order to rebuild Iraq."

Iraq the Model blog has more on this topic.

More broadly, public participation in the constitutional process has been encouraging:

Nearly a quarter of a million Iraqis of all ethnic and religious groups have taken part in meetings to help draft their country's new constitution, despite security challenges and problematic day-to-day living conditions, a preliminary United Nations report issued today said.

"This is nothing short of extraordinary when difficult living, transportation and communication facilities are exacerbated by an equally demanding security situation," it said of the schedule of meetings during the run-up to the 15 August deadline to complete the draft.

Tallying the participation so far at more than 220,000 people, the report said: "The United Nations salutes the bravery of Iraqis who have often risked their lives in order to contribute to the constitutional process"...

The highlights included radio and television debates. a conference of 1,500 Imams and a forum of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which had distributed questionnaires on federalism, Shari'a law and women's rights. In these venues members of the CDC and the Transitional National Assembly listened to people's views, the report said.

"Women's groups have been particularly active, with literally dozens of conferences demonstrating that, although they have a great variety of views, Iraqi women have a common aspiration to increase their level of participation in politics," it said.

In the last several weeks, addressing "important gaps in the activity," the CDC also met with some 20,000 participants in the north-eastern Anbar, Ninevah and Saleh al-Din governorates, where there had been "a hunger for information," it said.

Meanwhile, free media continues to grow. Iraq's first independent news agency is launched:

The Reuters Foundation has launched what it claims is Iraq's first "independent and commercially viable" news agency.

Last year the Foundation, a charity funded by Reuters, established an online "news exchange" called www.aswataliraq.info (Voices of Iraq) as a way for Iraq freelances to share stories.

With funding from the United Nations Development Programme and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation this has now been developed into a news agency run and staffed by Iraqi journalists with reporters in each of the country's 18 regional government areas.

So far Reuters Foundation has provided training for over 50 Iraqi journalists contributing to Voices of Iraq.

Reuters editor-in-chief Geert Linnebank said: "The development of a robust, independent and reliable media industry in Iraq is of fundamental importance to the world's understanding of this nation and its people.

"This new agency, the first of its kind in Iraq's history, will have a profound effect on how this country's story is told. Staffed and run by local journalists reporting on their own people and governments, I am sure it will become an indispensable source which will provide a much fuller picture than we have today of the key issues and events really driving this country's development."

In early August, Iraqis have also officially taken over the International Press Center in Baghdad:

The IPC, opened last year by Ambassador Paul Bremer, then head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, gave Iraq’s media a major boost. The state-of-the-art facility was unlike anything else available to the media in the entire region. But it became just another good news story that received little attention from Western media outlets.

At the IPC, Iraqi journalists were trained in common media practices, taught how to set up and use e-mail accounts and instructed in using the Internet to conduct research. With access to newsmakers, high-speed Internet and satellite news channels, the IPC quickly became the everyday workplace of many Iraqi journalists, as well as journalists from around the world...

In the year since the Coalition Provision Authority ceased existence, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has run the IPC. Now the Iraqis are taking charge. It’s critical they keep it working at full efficiency, since a free press will be a major contributor to democracy in Iraq.

Luckily, the Americans are leaving major upgrades to the facility, upgrades that will provide journalists with the tools they need in the months and years ahead. Already the most advanced in the region, the IPC has recently received new equipment that will keep the facility on the cutting edge. In addition to new desks and chairs, 20 new desktop computers are on hand. These new computers provide more than 30 workstations for journalists in Iraq.

Additional new equipment includes 30 English-learning programs with headsets, an LCD projector, a scanner, a color copier, dozens of memory sticks, hundreds of blank CDs and floppy discs, CD writers and dozens of computer programs. This new equipment joins the satellite dishes, TVs, laser printers, copier, computers, refrigerators and other high-tech gadgets already being used by journalists.

An additional 30 laptop computers will be given to some of the pioneering Iraqi journalists who have been using the facility since the day it opened. These new laptops will bring the journalists up to speed with their counterparts in the Western world and give them the mobility to cover stories wherever the news takes them.

And a radio station is courageously giving voice to Iraqi women:

Three years ago, Majda Jabouri earned a small living as a housekeeper, the only job she could find after being imprisoned because of her family’s opposition to the regime of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Today, she hosts a popular daily call-in show on Radio Almahaba, Iraq’s only station dedicated to women’s issues, called “Cup of Tea.” Most episodes are devoted to relationships, parenting, and other topics that would be familiar to any “Oprah” viewer. The show is also a product of its environment: a recent episode dealt with women’s feelings of jealousy and powerlessness when their husbands take second wives.

The station has been created with help from an American humanitarian:

The station was founded by Deborah Bowers, an American humanitarian worker whose interest in Iraq was sparked by her experiences helping Iraqi war refugees adjust to life in upstate New York in the early 1990s. In 1995, Ms. Bowers and one of the refugees she had befriended, Steve Sharrif, created Opportunities for Kids International Inc., a relief agency devoted to Iraqi children. It has since sent medical supplies and thousands of pairs of children’s shoes to the country.

Ms. Bowers, 50 years old, says that the idea for the station began with her Iraqi staffers, who saw Mr. Hussein’s ouster by U.S.-led forces as an opportunity to dramatically improve the legal and political standing of Iraqi women. Although Mr. Hussein’s government had been nominally secular, women had numerous restrictions on their daily lives, including an inability to leave the country without being accompanied by a spouse or male relative.

Ms. Bowers developed a grant proposal for the station and presented it to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, which supports private initiatives around the world devoted to gender equality and women’s rights. The U.N. agency ultimately gave her $500,000, which allowed the nascent station to purchase broadcasting and recording equipment and rent office space near the heavily fortified Palestine Hotel here. Employees chose the name Almahaba, and it began broadcasting to Baghdad and the surrounding area in March.

Now the station is actively campaigning for women's rights.

[Brad]

ECONOMY: Iraqi economy - a risky environment, but nevertheless plenty of opportunities:

The conflict in Iraq has proved to be a challenging prospect for the international business community. Despite the passing of two years since the end of major hostilities, the security situation remains precarious for many parts of the country. However, business opportunities are still massive for those willing to take a chance, says a study by a UK expert.

Iraq's potential to become the largest market in the Middle East is well known, but there is a case for arguing that in recent months the incentive for potential investors has not been matched by innovation in methods of accessing the Iraqi market, says Patrick Forbes, head of external relations at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, in his report "Assessment of the Business Climate in Iraq".

The latest trade figures show that UK exports to Iraq increasing 100 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 over the first quarter of 2004. However, this total is a mere £47.3 million [$85.2 million], which amounts to a drop in the ocean when compared with the volume of British exports to the UAE for the same period: £1.025 billion [$1.8 billion], he says.

Despite the risks facing any businessman interested in working in Iraq, there can be no doubting the opportunities that exist to make healthy profits, across the board of sectors. With proven reserves of over 115 billion barrels - third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran - and yet only 1.9 million bbl/d being extracted in March 2005, the scope for activity in this field is well documented. With the Ministry for Oil announcing its intention to issue new tenders in the last quarter for contracts to develop 11 southern oilfields the oil sector will be a growth area for the Iraqi economy.

With the electricity, water purification, and power generation sectors still needing considerable efforts to recover to pre-war levels, there will be room for anyone seeking to play a role in repairing essential services. In addition, the construction, finance, education, IT and telecommunications, and insurance sectors are undergoing efforts at regeneration, said the report.
USAID is assisting Iraqi banking sector and government's financial administration:

- In a critical milestone for Iraqi debt renegotiation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) accepted Iraq’s Monetary Survey. This survey is the culmination of two months of work with Central Bank of Iraq Research and Statistics staff and will be used to support negotiations relating to the IMF Standby Facility for Iraq...

- USAID representatives completed a two-part course for tax officials from northern Iraq on providing training on the new Corporate Income Tax Return...

- Sixteen Ministry of Planning and Development staff completed an Advanced Capital Budgeting Workshop...

- To harmonize banking standards throughout Iraq, USAID is working with bank officials to develop guidelines for credit policies and procedures for commercial banks on lending activities and credit files.
But it's not just an economic input from USAID: "With the full support of Iraqi counterparts, USAID’s economic advisors are working to create a social safety net to reduce poverty, child labor and social exclusion through cash transfers to poor families and dependant people. Advisors recently delivered an action plan which outlines a social safety net and a sustainable pension plan, by registering employees, accurate data collection for contributors and contributions, and effective control mechanisms. The economic advisors are also actively engaged with Iraqi counterparts to reform the pension structure so that it meets the needs of future Iraqi private sector labor growth."

A bold new reform plan is aiming to improve the crisis situation in housing:

A proposal has been drafted by Iraq’s Ministry of Housing & Construction that would provide investors land in Iraq on a long term lease basis or at rates well below market level.

During this week’s Iraq Development Program summit in Amman, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Housing & Construction Thaner Al-Feely and Program Director John Glassey confirmed that three million housing units are needed in Iraq and that only 10,000 units are currently available.

Feely was recently appointed chairman of investment in order to attract foreign direct investment into the country. Currently 70 per cent of property cost in Iraq is the cost of land. The return rate profit margin is expected to be at around 25 per cent, none of which will be taxed.

All foreign direct investment will be insured through the American Export-Import Bank.

The Iraqi Ministry of Housing & Construction is keen to set up a property system like that of the United Kingdom, which is based on a highly competitive building society market.

In order to fulfil this objective, Mr Glassey will produce a white paper for the ministry to propose a high level meeting between the ministry, the international investment community, international property development investors, Iraqi builders and contractors, banks and building societies.
Read all about this manufacturing success story in the middle of the insurgent territory:

Despite the upsurge in violence and mounting insecurity, a state enterprise in the restive Diyala province is doing roaring business.

The northeast province, of which Baquba is the capital, is a major insurgent stronghold in the country. Car and roadside bomb attacks occur almost on a daily basis.

But the escalating violence does not seem to have thwarted the ambitions of managers and workers at the Diyala Company for Electrical Industries to boost production.

The company has recently signed a 19 billion-dinar contract (approx. $140 million) to supply the ministries of oil, industry and communications with electrical transformers and meters as well as fiber optic cables.

“Within (current) efforts to reconstruct Iraq, the company has signed a 19.4 billion-dinar contract with the sectors of electricity, oil and communications,” a company statement faxed to the newspaper said.

The Diyala company is one of 45 such production enterprises in Iraq whose revenue with proper investment rehabilitation is projected to hit more than $300 million in 2006.
Up north, meanwhile, Suleymaniyah revives, thanks in part to the efforts of one man:

He is one of the wealthiest men in Kurdistan, if not the whole of Iraq, and he has a mission: to open the country to business.

Faruk Mustafa Rasool, the chairman of mobile phone company Asiacell, the fastest growing of Iraq's three main operators, comes across as a modest man with a modest head office in Sulaimaniya. There is nothing modest about his ambitions, however.

Besides the phone company, into which he and partners such as Kuwaiti telecoms group Wataniya have ploughed $300 million since 1999, he has deals for two cement factories, a steel plant and a 28-storey five-star hotel in this booming city.

He is also thinking about cultural projects, apartment complexes, satellite broadcasting, wireless technology and computer training centres -- the sorts of things that no one associates with the violence tearing Iraq apart.

However, if it can happen anywhere in Iraq right now, it can happen in Sulaimaniya, a city of about 700,000 inhabitants set in the mountains of the autonomous, northern Kurdish region, an attractive spot rapidly becoming a thriving business hub.

"Investment goes hand-in-hand with security and political stability, and here in Sulaimaniya we have both," Rasool told Reuters in an interview at his Asiacell headquarters, a low-rise blue-glass building in a small shopping centre.

"Sulaimaniya is going to become one of the most developed cities in the Middle East within a few years -- it will be Iraq's link to the outside world," he says with quiet confidence, a thick gold watch glinting on his wrist.
As the report notes, "Capital from the Gulf, Turkey, Lebanon and China is flooding in, while the Kurdish regional government, local investors and international donors have also injected funds. The total is in billions of dollars, according to Sulaimaniya's investment projects office, and it takes only a quick trip around the city to believe it, with huge construction sites buzzing with activity in every direction."

Suleymaniyah's prosperity is providing an increasing pull on the rest of Iraq:

Each morning before dawn, hundreds of Arabs from southern Iraq gather near a mosque in this northern Kurdish city hoping to find work on one of scores of construction sites dotting the landscape.

What began 18 months ago as a trickle of poor, unemployed young men moving north to find work and escape violence in predominantly Arab areas has now turned into a rapid stream.

And it's no longer just the poor and jobless fleeing.

Professionals -- including doctors, engineers and teachers -- are following them, desperate to escape the chaos tearing cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Baquba and Hilla apart.

"I came here for safety, and for my family," says Dr Ali Alwan, 40, an eye specialist who moved from the southern city of Basra to Sulaimaniya in late 2003 and has since encouraged dozens of former colleagues to follow him.

"Here it is a wonderful life. The children are in school, my wife is happy and there is good work," he says. "I don't think I will ever return to Basra."

Around 25 eye specialists alone have since taken the same route out of Basra, he says. At the Razgari out-patient clinic in Sulaimaniya, eight of the 13 doctors are Arabs who arrived in the past two years, according to director Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.

Young trainees, desperately needed in places like Baghdad and Basra where hospitals are understaffed and overworked, are also getting out. At Sulaimaniya's teaching hospital, 20 of this year's interns -- the majority -- are from Basra.

"Here things are normal, we are a normal hospital," says Karzan Sirwan, a Kurdish surgeon at the hospital. "I can understand why they come, and we need them too."

There are sometimes language barriers -- most Arabs don't speak Kurdish -- but since all Iraq's doctors are trained in English, they can communicate with one another, and translators are on hand to help doctors talk to Kurdish patients.

It's a similar situation at Sulaimaniya's university, where 40 Arab professors have joined the staff in the past two years, university officials say.
In communications news, the rightful owner will finally take possession of the name:

The Internet's key oversight agency has quietly authorized Iraq's new government to manage its own domain name, allowing for the restoration of Internet addresses ending in ".iq."

The suffix had been in limbo after the 2002 federal indictment of the Texas-based company that was running it on charges of funneling money to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas.

InfoCom Corp., which sold computers and Web services in the Middle East and got the ".iq" assignment in 1997, was convicted in April along with its chief executive and two brothers.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees top-level domains, unanimously approved transferring the ".iq" name to Iraq's telecommunications regulator on July 28.
And one telecommunications company reaches an important milestone:

Ali Al Dahwi, director of Al Atheer Telecommunications in Iraq, confirmed that his company would get closer to one and a half million [subscribers] for cellular phones in Iraq, at an investment of 430 million dollars.

He said that the company entered the competition in the Iraqi market two years ago, and through a short duration, in a race with time, it managed to go beyond the sum that it designated a an investment ($60 million), to serve about 300 thousand [subscribers] in southern regions. Its cellular phone services have expanded to other regions, such as Al Anbar and Diala, in addition to covering the border regions, as well.
In oil news, while in June, the oil production stood at 1.44 million barrels per day, in July it rose to 1.6 million. In that month, Iraq earned $2.5 billion from oil sales. In early August, the exports stood at 1.6 million barrels and the local consumption at 600,000 barrels.

Negotiations on the expansion of the necessary infrastructure get underway:

Iraq has made headway in talks with 17 international firms to construct refineries designed to offset a shortage of oil products for local use, a source at the oil ministry said.

The refineries, to be constructed in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, will have capacities ranging between 250,000-300,000 barrels per day, said the source, who asked for anonymity. He added that the ministry has plans to build mobile refineries with 10,000 b/d capacity to be increased later to 30,000 b/d in Arbil, Sulaimania, Amara, Haditha, Nassiriya and Diwaniya.

He said existing refineries at Baiji and Dora in Baghdad and one in Basra were unable to meet the increasing demand for derivatives.
Specifically, two tenders have already been announced:

The Iraqi oil ministry has called local and global companies to participate in a special tender for establishing a new refinery in Qoya region, near Quinsajaq district, between Erbil and Al Selaimania cities (north of Iraq), at a capacity of 70 thousands barrels a day. The total cost would be 400 million dollars; including tanks, infrastructure, and engineering works.

The second refinery would be in Jarf Al Sakhr region (south of Baghdad); at a capacity of 140 thousand barrels a day, and a cost of 800 million - 1 billion dollars. November 8, 2005, has been set as a deadline for submitting the documents of the tender on behalf of the competent countries.
Under a new agreement, Iraq will be exporting 35 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to Kuwait, for a five-year period. "The Kuwaiti side has also welcomed more Iraqi oil workers to receive training within Kuwaiti oil installations, and said it was ready to provide Iraq with spare parts necessary for its oil facilities."

There will also be cooperation with South Korea: "The state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) said yesterday that it will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government in support of technology for oil development... Under the deal, the KNOC will provide the ministry with state-of-the-art technologies for drilling oil and both sides will conduct a joint survey of Iraqi oil drilling blocs."

In transport news, twice-weekly flights between Baghdad and Istanbul are re-starting after 15 years. There is also a joint airport project in the south of the country:

Iraq plans to build a multimillion-dollar international airport near the southern city of Najaf, a holy center for Shiite Muslims, that would be financed largely by a low-interest loan from Iran, according to Iraq's transportation minister...

The facility, which Maliki said would cost an estimated $20 million to $25 million, would largely serve religious pilgrims traveling to and from Iran. Maliki said it would also link the region to other countries and improve access to a range of tourist attractions. Najaf, which is 90 miles south of Baghdad, and nearby Karbala are home to several of the shrines deemed holiest to Shiites.

[Brad]

RECONSTRUCTION: Japan, in conjunction with the World Bank, will be engaging in a major residential construction program: "The World Bank and Japan will help finance the construction of 30,000 homes in war-ravaged Iraq, Iraq housing ministry has announced. The project, which will cost 1.2 billion dollars, an will involve money mostly provided by the Iraqi state, the World Bank, through long term loans and the Japanese government."

Japan is also donating $11 million to construct six residential complexes in Basra and Amara to house some of the Marsh Arabs of the south while the marshes are slowly being regenerated. And Denmark will be constructing 300 houses in Badra for any Iraqi refugees currently living in Denmark who are willing to go back home.

Iraq reaches anelectricity milestone:

Iraq's electricity supply has risen above pre-war levels to 5,350 megawatts (MW) despite sabotage, boosted by hydroelectric power and more imports from Iran, Syria and Turkey, the minister in charge said on Thursday.

"Now electricity has reached a record after we broke 5,350 megawatts a few days ago for the first time since the war," Electricity Minister Mohsen Shalash told Reuters.

Iraq's emergency moves had eased electricity shortage during summer when temperatures can rise above 50 degrees centigrade (122 Fahrenheit), Shalash said in an interview in Amman during a stopover on his way to Iraq.

The rise in power supply of over 1,000 megawatts has come from an extra 500 megawatts generated by hydroelectric power after Turkey increased water flows from the Euphrates River to Iraqi dams while imports from Iran, Turkey and Syria added at least 350 megawatts in July.

A decade before the U.S. led invasion in 2003 capacity had fluctuated between 3,000 to 4,400 megawatts at its peak.

Iraq's power grid, battered by attacks by insurgents and long neglect is still producing only half the electricity needed despite international efforts to rebuild it.

The forecast rise to 6,000 megawatts in August would come mainly from a doubling of imports from Iran to 200 megawatts and a similar jump in Turkey's exports to around 300 megawatts.
Longer term, however, Iraq will not be relying on importing electricity, and not just because of the cost:

Iraq's medium term plan was to implement $20 billion worth of electricity projects by 2010 to raise capacity to 18,000 megawatts solely through donor funding, Shalash said.

Iraq was in advanced talks with Japan on how to utilise the bulk of $3.5 billion of soft loans in electricity projects.

Iran was ready to give as much as $2-3 billion for power plants that its own firms can construct, Shalash added.

A recent visit to Germany had also won promises to access for the first time as much as $1 billion in soft loans by one of the major Western opponents of the U.S. led war, said Shalash.

The funds will finance several key projects such as degasification of flared liquefied natural gas for electricity.

Rehabilitation of major power plants of Mussayab, Nassiriya, Baiji and Baghdad's Dura would be completed by year end.

An extra 500 megawatts will come on stream later this year from a 10 unit gas turbine plant constructed near the city of Mussayab which was originally due for completion in June 2004.
USAID is continuing with an electricity project north of Baghdad: "At the Kirkuk substation, work on the V94 generator is being finalized. The Iraqi contractor is currently finishing the installation of the fuel gas supply, air compressor and electrical switches. Work also continues on erecting the generator’s permanent gantry crane is used for access and maintenance... USAID’s work at the site will ultimately bring two new generators online, adding 325 MW of electrical generation capacity to the electrical grid. The recently completed V64 unit has added 65 MW to the national grid. Initial startup and synchronization of the V64 was achieved on January 3. The V94 generator, which will add 260 MW, is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2005. The overall project is now 83 percent finished."

USAID is also working around the capital: "USAID partners rehabilitating Baghdad’s electricity distribution substations have completed the necessary work to energize six of eight high priority substations in the Karkh and Ru-safa Districts. The goal was to finish work at the targeted sites in order to meet the higher power demands during the summer months. The remaining two sites will energize once the Ministry of Electricity (MoE) installs the 33kV and 11kV feeders. USAID has provided equipment for 37 sites altogether. Of these, USAID and its partners are working at 25 sites, while the Ministry of Electricity (MOE) is working at 12."

USAID is also working on several major water projects (link in PDF):

Seven new raw water pumps have arrived at the Sharq-Dijlah water treatment plant for installation and the refurbishment of the Administration Building has been completed. USAID accepted responsibility to complete the expansion of the plant, which was begun under the Oil for Food Program. To further reduce anticipated water shortages in Baghdad, USAID is restoring the existing water treatment plant to its original capacity and providing the design for a second expansion at this site. Combined, the initial expansion and the plant restoration are expected to increase the supply of treated water by approximately 90 MGD. 2006...

The Iraqi subcontractor implementing the Baghdad Water Mains Rehabilitation project has laid 16.1 km of asphalt paving and 87.7 km of main line pipe to date which surpasses the original contract amount of 74 km. The current goal is to install 98km of mainline pipe. A total of 7,498 additional homes have been connected to the water mains.
In Basra province, water situation is slowly improving, although there is still a long way to go:

Basra’s water authority is constructing 12 small purification units that will eventually produce 25 cubic meters of clean water every hour.

The authority’s head, Abdulsattar Akef, said the new units fall short of meeting this southern city’s thirst for clean water.

Providing Basra, the country’s second largest city with clean water, is a real headache for the provincial authorities administering the city...

Akef said conditions with regard to clean water were better in rural areas than in the city proper.

“In the countryside and villages clean water is relatively available in almost all the villages in the province (of Basra).

“We have rehabilitated 30 water purification units with a total capacity of 250 million cubic gallons a day. We have a better situation in rural areas than last year,” he said.

But Basra itself, Akef, added will have to wait for a few more years to have full access to clean water.

He said Japan has agreed to finance a giant purification plant for Basra that will produce 300 million gallons of water a day but will take three years to complete.
In education news, the United Nations is also making a significant contribution towards rebuilding the system:

Nearly half a million Iraqi children will benefit from upgraded sanitation facilities at schools across the country this year as a result of United Nations (UN) initiatives aimed at raising a new generation of educated Iraqis to help their country rebuild from war...

UN-backed efforts to improve conditions at 800 schools will foster safer conditions for some 460,000 boys and girls this year. The UN has been helping Iraq’s Ministry of Education by providing over 1,300 directors with computer literacy and communications skills. Hundreds of computers were provided to schools which also received 36,000 sports and recreational materials.

Over 130 schools have been rehabilitated with UN assistance in the lower southern region, while in the north, the UN is working to renovate primary schools in rural communities where refugees are expected to return.

The UN is also procuring one million school bags for new first graders and five million school kits for all students up to the sixth grade.

Rebuilding Iraq’s schools benefits not only the students but also the thousands of workers who gain employment through the projects which have contributed to generating over 3,400 jobs per day.
USAID continues to help improve the infrastructure, through projects such as this (link in PDF): "A women’s teacher training center in Babil Governorate was renovated
and restored through a grant from USAID’s Community Action Program (CAP). The institute prepares women in the governorate to enter into careers in the field of education. After years of neglect, disrepair, and recent car bombings, the building
was unsafe and barely usable." Also:

USAID’s program to improve basic education in Iraq has awarded 41 grants to Iraqi contractors to date totaling $2,885,924, including five school rehabilitation grants, four grants for education training center rehabilitations, and 32 grants for replacing mud schools. As of July, the grants had supported the rehabilitation of education training centers in Baghdad, Arbil, Diyala and Hilla and the replacement of 32 mud schools.

The model schools program team has finalized a list of 80 model schools in cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The model schools program seeks to establish four model schools in each MOE directorate to demonstrate improved systems and teaching methods. The team has also begun procuring student desks, laboratory equipment, and computers.
Meanwhile, the tenth group of academics who lost their jobs under Saddam for political reasons gets rehired by the authorities: "This group includes 87 persons, who were decided to be rehired in six universities; Baghdad, Al Musel, Al Mostansereya, Al Kufa and Babylon, in addition to the technical education administration. The source clarified that until now, the ministry has rehired 2365 politically discharged or harmed persons in the ministry, the universities, and its affiliate administrations. He noted that the ministry has achieved more than 80% of its task, so far."

In health news, the World Health Organisation has recently conducted a successful campaign: "A successful national Polio Vaccination Campaign, conducted this week by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and other key health partners, reached 4.4 million children this week (according to the latest field reports). Of the target population of 4.7 million children, 93% was reached; in response to recent outbreaks of Polio in countries in the region. The second round of emergency National Immunisation Days ended successfully in all governorates, except small subdistricts in the Anbar Governorate, where 3,000 children were not accessed due to insecurity (plans are in place to cover these children once the situation allows)."

A new program by USAID is aiming to improve the skills and expertise of Iraqi doctors (link in PDF):

In early July, a group of 25 physicians from the Iraqi Ministry of Health graduated from a six-day Training of Trainers’ workshop (TOT). Participants were representatives of various departments of the Ministry of Health and Primary Health Care Centers from across the country...

USAID’s Training Model Primary Providers (TMPP) program aims to support the Ministry of Health in training primary health care providers and other staff for 150 model primary health care centers currently under construction around the country. The training program will upgrade the technical knowledge, clinical and management skills and performance of center directors, physicians, nurses, medical assistants and other staff assigned to model centers...

This training program will provide approximately 1,400 physicians, 1,000 nurses, 2,100 medical assistants, and 150 center directors with improved knowledge and enhanced clinical and management skills, and an additional 5,000 center staff with strengthened team work and problem-solving skills. Improving staff skills will lead to enhanced services at model primary health care centers, with potential benefits for approximately 32,500 people per primary health care center, for a total of 4,875,000 beneficiaries at 150 primary health care sites around the country.
The World Health Organisation is also working on the health infrastructure:

- The third stage of rehabilitation of the National Blood Transfusion Centre in Baghdad is 60% complete;

- Of the 23 Primary Health Care Centre Rehabilitation Projects (each project consisting of up to 14 PHC centres) being undertaken, 4 are currently under the bidding process and 19 are in the stage of implementation.[Al-anba, Babel, Karbala (45%), Najaf (2%), Waste (90%), Baquba, Maysan, Erbil, Duhok, Basra, Nasrya, Muthana (55%), Karkuk group 1 ( 26%), Karkuk group 2 (34%), Basrah (52%), Salahdine (100%), Basrah (39%, Muthana (7%), Mousl (38%)].

- Of the 19 Training Halls being rehabilitated, 2 are under the bidding process and 17 are in the stage of implementation [Karbala(95%), Maysan(51%), Salahadine(75%), Nasirya(30%), Dewanya(20%),Duhok(98%), Baquba(50%), Anbar(30%), Erbil(32%), Muthana(20%), Babel(41%), Kirkuk(36%), Basrah(46%), Najaf(20%),Waste(60%), Mousl(100%), Suleimanyah(100%)].

- The Stage 1 rehabilitation of the National Drug Quality Control Laboratory is 92% complete.
The authorities have designated an additional sum of 450 billion dinars ($306 million) for the purchase of medicines and equipment. There's also more help for Iraq's many victims of past and present violence: "The health ministry decided to include all the disabled and the victims of terrorist explosions in comprehensive free service. A ministry official source said that the decision includes all the victims of explosions and terrorist acts, the disabled victims, the tyrannized by the former regime, and the disabled of former wars and military service, in addition to the disabled children, less than 13 years, the dwellers of the state homes and lodging centers, and the disabled, included n the law of social care."

The US Department of Agriculture is funding a private sector effort to help Iraqi poultry industry:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it will donate 21,250 metric tons of corn and 8,750 tons of soybean meal to the U.S. Grains Council, a private organization, for use in Iraq.

"Agriculture is vital to the Iraqi economy and this donation will help to revitalize their agriculture sector as an engine of economic growth," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "We are very pleased that USDA's food for progress program will help to improve the quality of life available to the Iraqi people."

The U.S. Grains Council will sell the corn and soybean meal and use the proceeds to help revitalize the Iraqi poultry industry. The Council's program will provide a revolving loan fund for poultry producers, training in credit fund management, and trade capacity building for the Iraqi Poultry Producers Association.
USAID is also assisting with some smaller scale initiatives such as these (link in PDF):

USAID’s [Agricultural Reconstruction and Development for Iraq] program funded the construction of water storage basins in five Iraqi villages to improve irrigation. Each of the five 96 m3 basins will collect runoff from mountain springs for use during the summer season...

Six USAID-supported agriculture outreach teams, that will include a veterinarian and an agronomist/animal production specialist, will visit 240 villages to conduct workshops on diseases that are transmitted from animals to people.
In other recent programs (link in PDF):

USAID’s Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program is training 28 mechanics under a grant to improve access to agricultural machinery maintenance services in rural areas...

To create an infrastructure for a nationwide price information system among produce traders and farmers, USAID’s ARDI program provides a daily report of fruit and vegetable prices from wholesale markets in 10 Iraqi governorates...

The Directorate of Water Resources in Al Muthanna’ Governorate is working with USAID to rehabilitate a canal system that will irrigate 6,000 donums (1,200 hectares) of land farmed by 120 families.
And there's good environmental news from the south:

Good news from Iraq is hard to come by these days, what with the suicide bombings, the car bombs, the tension between Shi’a and Sunni factions and the almost daily kidnappings. Yet amidst all the doom and gloom there are some positive reports on the unlikely subject of Iraq’s environment. The vast marshlands of southern Iraq, almost drained out of existence by Saddam, are recovering far more quickly than anyone had even dared to hope...

At last there is good news: Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Curtis Richardson, co-author of a report on the current status of the marshes, announced that with the destruction of barriers built by Saddam’s henchmen to direct water away from the marshes, 20 percent of the area has now been reflooded with the promise that even more can be restored. And although some areas are heavily salinated, the water quality is better than expected. The result has been the return of “about 60 percent of the wildlife to the marshes” though the report does not make clear whether this is the number of species or absolute numbers. The newly elected Iraqi government has already set up a commission to oversee the recovery of the area and $30 million has been donated from abroad to help in the rehabilitation.

[Brad]

HUMANITARIAN AID: USAID continues to help the disabled (link in PDF): "USAID’s Community Action Program (CAP) worked with a community in northern Iraq to rebuild the sports facilities at a rehabilitation center for the disabled. The rehabilitation center was established in 1986 to assist men newly disabled from the Iran/Iraq war, but now offers services to all people with disabilities in At Tamim and As Sulaymaniyah governorates."

Operation Hope is helping schoolchildren and handicapped:

Although our foreign team left the southern Shimaya district due to security concerns in April 2004, work has continued through locals who have taken responsibility for the projects. By March 2005 we had finished renovating three more schools. We continue to maintain a relationship with the local communities and partnered with UNICEF for the rehabilitation of these schools.

Operation Mercy’s foreign team re-located to northern Iraq in the spring of 2005, where we have completed a needs assessment and are pursuing the areas of schools rehabilitation, working with people with disabilities and skills training for the high level of unemployed youth. We plan to work closely with other NGO’s and the local communities.

In June ‘05 we distributed approximately 50 wheelchairs in local centres in Northern Iraq. Many of the children who received the chairs had been waiting for many years to get a wheelchair. Our children’s physiotherapist will be continuing with a needs assessment in the area of Community Based Rehabilitation. We are also looking into the training of children and teachers regarding the integration of physically disabled children into public schools.

The areas of health education and sanitation are a priority for our staff and we will focus our schools rehabilitation efforts on these areas. Our plans will result in improved hygiene standards for approximately 8000 children in 2005 by renovating the sanitation facilities.

Operation Mercy’s aim in offering skills training is to equip the many young people with the basic skills needed to find good employment. We intend to offer training in basic computer skills and English language.
Young people participating in a summit have recently won praise for their efforts to help Iraqi children:

First lady Laura Bush on Friday applauded teenagers for reaching out to the children of Iraq and to their own communities.

"You're turning youthful idealism into practical ideas," she told nearly a thousand teens and adult organizers from around the country at the fourth National Youth Summit.

Summit participants donated 70 large boxes of art supplies for Iraqi schools, a project Bush described as "a heartfelt act of solidarity with the young people of Iraq."

The State Department sponsored six Iraqi summit participants, including Iraqi minister of youth and sport, Talib Zaini, and two Iraqi young people.
Operation Iraqi Children continues:

U.S. soldiers in Iraq are doing more than conducting military operations: They're also handing out much needed school supplies to Iraq's children. And for the past year, some of those supplies have been provided by a small nongovernmental organization founded together by an American actor and a bestselling author.

"Operation Iraq Children" (OIC) was begun in March 2004 by actor Gary Sinise and author Laura Hillenbrand. Sinise played "Lieutenant Dan" in the film Forrest Gump and is known for his role as a detective in the hit television series CSI: NY. Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend, a book about a champion racehorse that was made into a feature film.

Sinise says he began the project after visiting an Iraqi school where he "saw a tremendous need" for basic school supplies and then "became aware that this was the norm for most of the schools in Iraq."

Sinise originally shipped 25 boxes of school supplies in January 2004. Since OIC was founded it has sent 40 additional shipments to Iraq -- most recently on July 29. To date more than 200,000 school kits have been shipped, according to the OIC site.

A typical kit contains scissors, a ruler, regular and colored pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, notebook paper, a composition book, some folders and a zippered pencil bag. OIC estimates the kit's value at $15, which would make for an estimated donation value of approximately $3 million.

Sinise's efforts drew the attention of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who visited the actor in Los Angeles August 4 on the set of CSI: NY. According to the American Forces Press Service, Rumsfeld told CSI: NY cast members about "all the wonderful things [Sinise] has done for the men and women in uniform across the country" and thanked the actor for his personal support for U.S. troops. Rumsfeld and Sinise both said they hoped OIC can be expanded into Afghanistan.
One youngester's project to help troops bring some cheer to Iraqi children has progressed beyond anyone's expectations:

What started out as a simple family project for an Arizona teenager has blossomed - make that snowballed - into a huge operation that's about to send the 50,000th Beanie Baby doll to troops in Iraq to distribute to local children.

Fourteen-year-old Alison Goulder is still at it, continuing a project to collect the stuffed critters for U.S. troops.

The soon-to-be-ninth-grader got the idea when she read in a magazine about Operation Grateful, an effort by law firm Greenberg Traurig to send care packages to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany. The magazine quoted Joe Reeder, former undersecretary of the Army and now a partner with the law firm, as saying Beanie Babies were the top item on the troops' wish list.

Goulder, who started collecting Beanie Babies when she was 7 years old, took the article as a call to action. She and her sister Jenna and brother Greg began scouring through their closets. They came up with 80 Beanie Babies.

But that was soon to become the just tip of the iceberg. Alison's family members, friends and schoolmates started collecting the Beanie Babies, too.

Alison's original goal was to collect 1,000 of the critters. But by last December, she'd already gathered 28,000, earning her a visit to the Pentagon to be thanked personally by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

She also visited Greenberg Traurig's Washington law office, where she found one room so jam-packed with Beanie Babies she'd collected that "you could hardly walk into it," she told the American Forces Press Service.

Greenberg Traurig continues to ship all the Beanie Babies Alison collects to Iraq as part of their Operation Grateful campaign.

And to Alison's amazement, the Beanie Babies continue to arrive regularly at her Scottsdale home. They come from "all over," she said, fueled by articles in local newspapers and local TV stories about her effort. CNN ran a story about her efforts, and troops in Iraq learned about it on the Pentagon Channel.

Now she's considering taking the effort national, possibly creating a Web site to further publicize her efforts. "We're definitely expanding the project," she said, noting that she has "thousands" on hand, ready for shipment. Once they're distributed, this shipment will bring to 50,000 the number of Beanie Babies being enjoyed by young Iraqi children.

[Brad]

THE COALITION TROOPS: Read this amazing story of how one American officer has won hearts and minds of the locals:

Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders... Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik...

Late last year a full-blown battle between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces had erupted, and U.S. commanders assigned a unit to stop rocket and mortar attacks that regularly hit their base. Horn, who had been trained to operate radars for a field artillery unit, was now thrust into a job that largely hinged on coaxing locals into divulging information about insurgents.

Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Dr. Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Horn's first Humvee patrols.

Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk to people about their life and security problems.

Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area: he now boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.

"They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases," Horn said.

Mohammed, Horn's mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote, Horn said.

Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

But what may have originally started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Horn each month to discuss security issues.

And Horn doesn't take his responsibilities lightly. He lately has been prodding the Iraqi Education Ministry to pay local teachers, and he closely follows a water pipeline project that he hopes will ensure the steady flow of clean water to his villages.

"Ninety percent of the people in my area are shepherds or simple townspeople," said Horn. "They simply want to find a decent job to make enough money to provide food and a stable place for their people to live."

To Horn's commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: no rockets have hit their base in the last half year.
A similar approach, but without all the theatrics, is working in Qayyarah:

Last fall, insurgents overran police stations and Iraqi army bases in this northern rural region, scaring off nearly all 2,000 Iraqi troops and keeping people locked inside their homes at night.

Last month only two attacks took place in this Rhode Island-sized area mostly populated by Sunni Arabs and Kurds, according to U.S. commanders in the area.

The difference, they say, stems from a new approach of relying on sheiks and mukhtars - the tribal and local leaders who wield enormous influence among some 75,000 people in hundreds of villages and small towns south of the city of Mosul.

"Sheiks are the real power here," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "Mayors just aren't as good as sheiks on security matters."

Becker says he now meets with 50 to 100 sheiks a week, and holds monthly confabs with them in a base auditorium that usually shows movies for relaxing soldiers. Sheiks and mukhtars, most in white robes, some walking gingerly with canes, flow into the room and listen to U.S. and Iraqi officials talking about security as well as local issues such as electricity supply.

About six people showed up for the first meeting early this year - but the latest, on Tuesday, drew about 300. Much of it took a townhall tone, hearing complaints about gasoline shortages and inquiries about arrested fellow tribesmen.

"After November, what happened was bad, but they came to us," said Sheik Nief Saleh said of the Americans. "I try to help as I can."

In return for the sheiks' help, Becker says he has spent close to $1 million on reconstruction jobs employing hundreds of tribesmen.
More money will soon be spent on various smaller scale projects in Baghdad and elsewhere:

A potential $161 million will soon be added to the Reconstruction Program coffers here.

The Commander’s Emergency Relief Program, or CERP, is an allocation of money which allows commanders on the ground and Iraqi community leaders to work together toward immediate quality of life enhancements for Iraqis.

The Gulf Region Division and its three districts in Mosul, Baghdad, and Tallil work with their Iraqi counterparts to prioritize needs.

Maneuver commanders in communities look for small infrastructure projects aimed at completing the ‘last mile’ for delivery of electricity, water or other basic needs to homes and businesses.

CERP funds have also been made available to the Iraqi Provincial Reconstruction and Development committees. In one governate in the Gulf Region's North District, three water treatment plants in one area were recommended for rehabilitation at a cost of approximately $175,000.

Another 78 CERP projects in the north district, funded for $4.9M, will add three classrooms each to 27 schools and six classrooms apiece to 51 schools. All of those projects are expected to be completed in September.

In the Gulf Region Central District, an $89,000 outpatient clinic is being built with funding from this program. Also in the central district, seven CERP projects for a cost of $1.4 million are scheduled to replace low- and medium-voltage lines throughout Sadr City.
The Army is also now funding reconstruction projects by Iraqi authorities - and saving on costs in the process:

To provide fiscal reconstruction support in Iraq, the Army presented its first reimbursement payment July 25.

Maj. Gen. Daniel Long, director of the Iraq project and contracting office, presented Jasim M. Jaa’far, Iraqi minister of construction and housing, with a check for $1,548,795 under an Army program to provide fiscal support for the reconstruction of select Iraq infrastructure

The agreement allows the Iraqi minister of construction and housing to hire contractors and manage the projects themselves. No U.S. contractors are on site.

This agreement realized a 34 percent savings over traditional U.S. contracts. The money will be used to build key bridges and roadways. Programs such as this are central to the reconstruction effort, and provide the first step in building a foundation for the transfer of control of completed facilities to Iraqi management.
Some of the projects that came on line in July: "Construction was completed this month on a $437,000 electrical distribution project in the Al Anbar Province; a $264,000 Maternity and Pediatric Hospital in the Wassit Province; a $240,000 potable water project in the Diyala Province; a $217,500 police station in the Baghdad Province; a $50,000 school repair project in the Salah al Din Province; and a $29,000 courthouse project in the Erbil Province."

The troops are also improving electrical infrastructure around Najaf:

With a major neighborhood electrical refurbishment project getting underway in the city of Najaf, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District has earmarked most of the money for distribution projects, which means a voltage level from 33 kilovolts down to the levels used by houses and small shops.

"The plants aren’t operating at full capacity for one reason or another. The plants are old and haven’t been well maintained over the years for example. This power shortage causes the three hours on/ three hours off of electricity that Iraq experiences now because there is only half the power needed."

People appreciate distribution projects because that’s when "you bring wires into the home," said Greg Fillers, Gulf Region South Electrical Sector project manager. "It’s kind of like an overall electric blanket. That blanket covers power generation, transmission lines, distribution networks and controls." He added that all four components contribute equally to the system.

Fillers explained that similar distribution projects are being planned and accomplished in most of Iraq’s larger cities, for example Basrah. There, the power generation plant at Khor Az Zubahr has a dual switchyard. While the generator there doesn’t create high voltages, the voltage is converted up for