WAS $53 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS WASTED ON RELIEF AND RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN IRAQ?

U.S. Fears Iraq Development Projects May Go to Waste

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
THE NEW YORK TIMES

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/world/middleeast/21reconstruct.html?_r=1&hp

BAGHDAD — In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges.

But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people.

The projects run the gamut — from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers’ market that farmers cannot decide how to share, to a large American hospital closed immediately after it was handed over to Iraq because the government was unable to supply it with equipment, a medical staff or electricity.

Continue reading here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/world/middleeast/21reconstruct.html?_r=1&hp