Four years after Bush’s invasion, many Iraqis still lack reliable water, electricity

This video from the USA shows

Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein of the Electric Utility Workers Union of Iraq [; and] Faleh Abood Umara Gen. Sec. of the Iraqi Fed. of Oil Workers hosted by U.S. Labor Against the War

From Alternet in the USA:

Four Years Later, Many Iraqis Still Lack Reliable Water, Electricity

Most of northern Iraq is without lights as two major power plants have been idled due to lack of fuel, a statement by the electricity ministry said.

The source said the plants feeding the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk are out of function as technicians failed to secure enough gas to run them.

The gas-driven plants are among the largest stations in the north which has been suffering from acute power shortages for years.

Electricity levels in Iraq as a whole are at all-time low. The average time power is on across the country has been almost reduced by two thirds since the U.S. invasion of 2003.

Major cities used to have an average of nine hours of electricity a day prior to the invasion. The average is currently 3 hours a day.

Iraq was generating nearly 5,000 megawatts before the U.S. invasion. But the generation capacity has slumped to less than 4,000 megawatts while consumption has soared.

Electricity ministry puts national demand at 7,000 megawatts. This means that the national grid is generating less than half the national demand judged by the average time Iraqis enjoy electricity.

Some propagandists for Bush’s war now finally admit that in southern and central Iraq, the ‘cakewalk‘ and the flower throwing by Iraqi civilians to US soldiers which they predicted, did not happen. They claim that northern Iraq, contrary to this, is a success story.

It is not; not for women’s rights to live free from anti women violence. Not for electricity. Not for water. Etc.

Despite Iraq’s oil oases, its citizens still live in darkness: here.

Open sewers of Baghdad: here.

US contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan more than doubled from 2004 to 2006 to over 25 billion dollars but government oversight of the firms involved has slackened, a watchdog group said Monday: here.

Provincial election delay in Iraq heightens ethnic tensions in Kirkuk: here.