*EPF506 12/03/2004
Iraq Aid Program Largest in USAID History, Agency's Head Says
($5 billion program includes short- and long-term projects) (560)

By Kathryn McConnell
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- In Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is carrying out the largest reconstruction program in the organization's history, according to its administrator.

Andrew Natsios told a media briefing at the State Department December 3 that the estimated $5 billion program includes both immediate and ongoing assistance, and that USAID is supporting the process leading up to elections in January 2005. This includes organizing public meetings on democratic principles, distributing voter registration kits and helping to establish local governance councils and an independent election administration, he said.

One of USAID's early successes in the country was establishing a public food distribution system that is benefiting the entire population, Natsios said. Under the Saddam Hussein regime, access to food was politicized, a system that continually left many people hungry, he said.

Other successful early efforts have been in the rehabilitation of the public services, health and education sectors, Natsios said. USAID also is helping to expand economic opportunities in the country and improve the efficiency and accountability of Iraq's government, he said.

Prior to hostilities, the aid official said, electric power service outside of Baghdad was "barely functional" -- only three hours a day in Basra, for example. USAID has now "evened out" power distribution throughout the country, providing 5,000 megawatts of power a day and building to a capacity of 6,000 megawatts daily by summer 2005, he said.

The aid agency has rehabilitated several major wastewater treatment plants, stopping the discharge of raw sewage into the Tigris River, Natsios said.

It also has rehabilitated major water treatment plants and pumping stations across Iraq, according to a USAID report distributed at the briefing. One result is that an additional 50 million gallons of potable water is available in Baghdad every day, the report said.

Other accomplishments have been the major reconstruction of airports in Baghdad and Basra and the rebuilding of bridges along major transportation routes, the agency said.

The USAID-rehabilitated port of Um Qasr, once clogged with tons of sludge, now unloads 50 ships a day, Natsios said.

Among USAID's accomplishment in the health sector have been vaccinating more than three million children and providing nutrition supplements to more than 200,000 pregnant women, the agency said.

USAID has refurbished thousands of schools and health care centers and provided skills training to teachers, school administrators, physicians and primary health care providers around the country, Natsios said.

Five universities in the United States already have partnered with universities in Iraq, helping to open access to education resources that for decades had been blocked, Natsios said. These education partnerships have resulted in an emergence of Internet cafes in many of Iraq's universities providing access to information from and about the world, he said.

The aid agency is helping to build Iraq's economic infrastructure by providing, in the short-term, reconstruction jobs to residents and, for the long-term, vocational training and links to employment centers, Natsios said.

USAID also has been concentrating on reform of the agriculture sector, Natsios said.

He said USAID has established several date palm nurseries and has been testing new seed varieties. Iraq has "some of the best soil in the Arab world, but it had been neglected," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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