US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT1830

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KUWAIT 001830 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID/W 
STATE PLEASE REPEAT TO IO COLLECTIVE 
STATE FOR PRM/ANE, EUR/SE, NEA/NGA, IO AND SA/PAB 
NSC FOR EABRAMS, SMCCORMICK, STAHIR-KHELI, JDWORKEN 
USAID FOR USAID/A, DCHA/AA, DCHA/RMT, DCHA/FFP 
USAID FOR DCHA/OTI, DCHA/DG, ANE/AA 
USAID FOR DCHA/OFDA:WGARVELINK, BMCCONNELL, KFARNSWORTH 
USAID FOR ANE/AA:WCHAMBERLIN 
ROME FOR FODAG 
GENEVA FOR RMA AND NKYLOH 
DOHA FOR MSHIRLEY 
ANKARA FOR AMB WRPEARSON, ECON AJSIROTIC AND DART 
AMMAN FOR USAID AND DART 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREF, IZ, WFP 
SUBJECT:  TFIZ01: DART ASSESSMENT OF HEET AND AL HADITHAH 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  DART Field Team West began assessing communities along 
the Euphrates River northeast of Ar Ramadi on 27 April.  The 
DART traveled the main highway between Ar Rutbah and the 
intersection with Highway 12.  The DART assessed both the 
Heet and Al Hadithah communities in Al Anbar governorate. 
In general, the DART found no significant immediate 
emergency needs in these communities. 
Electricity and food are available, potable water systems 
are operating, markets are open, and the PDS is functioning. 
End Summary. 
 
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GENERAL CONDITIONS IN HEET 
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2.  Heet had only intermittent loss of electricity and water 
during and after the war, and utilities are now at pre-war 
levels.  The biggest problem appears to be a lack of propane 
gas for cooking fuel.  Some residents reported that they 
were beginning to use wood as cooking fuel.  The market and 
shops were open and busy with many different vegetables and 
meats for sale, although eggs, milk, and fruits were not 
visible. 
 
3.  In Heet, the DART visited the Oil for Food (OFF) program 
flour mill, which is operating.  According to the OFF mill 
manager in Heet, all four Anbar mills are functioning at 
full capacity and producing a combined total of 13,000 
metric tons (MT) per month.  According to the manager, this 
OFF milling operation serves approximately 1.25 million 
beneficiaries. 
 
4.  The Heet mill is located on Highway 12 north from Ar 
Ramadi.  Heet's power grid was providing electricity, and 
diesel fuel for the plant's back-up generators was 
available.  The plant was well-managed, clean, and running 
at full capacity.  The DART was invited inside the facility 
to photograph and observe mill operations, which included 
grain milling, bagging, and dock loading for immediate 
shipment of flour to the Anbar flour agents.  The Heet mill 
is supplied by the grain warehouse and silo in Ar Ramadi. 
The mill manager stated that the Ar Ramadi warehouse has 
40,000 MT of grain in stock.  This information needs to be 
confirmed. 
 
5.  Although a rapid assessment of the public distribution 
system (PDS) was not conducted, a local flour agent stated 
that other food supplies for Heet are adequate.  He also 
stated that recent OFF deliveries of rice, oil, and beans 
were insufficient and that Heet's Wakils (PDS agents) were 
present and working. 
 
6.  The mill manager expressed concerns that donations of 
wheat flour would have adverse affects on the milling 
industry in the area and asked the DART "not to bring flour 
to Heet."  The Heet mill employs 50 workers who are 
paid through income generated by milling waste.  According 
to mill operations manager, 85 percent of whole grain is 
converted to high quality flour.  The remaining 15 percent 
is used to make a lesser quality flour for bread products 
and is sold.  Proceeds from these sales compensate the mill 
owner who then pays the workers. 
 
7.  People interviewed by the DART stated that the Heet area 
did not witness any military activity or receive any damage 
during the conflict. 
 
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GENERAL CONDITIONS IN AL HADITHAH 
--------------------------------- 
 
8.  Al Hadithah lacked electricity and water for only a 
short period during the war and is now at pre-war utility 
standards.  The telephone system is functional within city 
limits.  The market and shops were open and busy with 
many different vegetables and meats for sale, although eggs, 
milk, and fruits were not visible.  One building had been 
converted into the local headquarters of the Iraqi National 
Congress Party with a sign out front that read "Welcome to 
Democracy."  Coalition forces and the Corps of 
Engineers are based near the Al Qadisiy Dam, and on 27 April 
they detonated several caches of arms, explosives, and 
unexploded ordinance (UXOs) near the city. 
 
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AL HADITHAH'S HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
9.  According to Hospital Director Dr. Khayoun Abdullah, the 
Al Hadithah General Hospital and its network of five primary 
health centers treated 86 people with injuries sustained 
from the conflict.  Another 31 died from war-related 
injuries.  Since the war's end, three children and one adult 
were injured by UXOs.   The hospital itself was damaged by a 
bomb that fell in a cemetery 50 meters from the hospital, 
smashing some of the facility's windows.  Throughout the 
city, 30 houses were destroyed.   Occupants of these houses 
are currently staying in the homes of extended family 
members. 
 
10.  The hospital, and the city, had electricity and water 
for all but a few days during the war.  The director's 
primary concern is a lack of certain equipment and essential 
drugs, such as antibiotics and medicines for chronic 
diseases, although he admitted this shortage had been an 
ongoing problem.  The hospital had sufficient supplies of 
oxygen that the director said was of 99.6 percent 
concentration. 
 
11.  Dr. Abdullah said there was not a childhood nutrition 
problem in Al Hadithah, with only 10 to 20 children 
transferred to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Ar Ramadi in 
the last 12 years for nutritional problems.  The most common 
health problems were amoebic dysentery, acute respiratory 
infections, gastro-intestinal problems, and in the last 5 to 
10 years, tuberculosis. 
 
12.  The hospital, serving the community of 80,000, has a 
nutrition rehabilitation center but chronically lacks 
therapeutic milk.  CARE regularly supplements the hospital's 
supply of milk and, last year, rehabilitated the facility. 
The city does not have a community pediatric unit but does 
have an ongoing immunization program. 
 
13.  The city's health system has three pharmacists and 27 
doctors, seven of whom are women. 
 
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FOOD IN AL HADITHAH 
------------------- 
 
14.  According to the Wakil manager of the Haqlaniyah and 
Barwanah Wakils, the PDS system is functioning and food 
supplies are sufficient for the next two to three months. 
Haqlaniyah and Barwanah are two smaller communities near 
Haditha and are served by approximately 145 Wakils.  They 
have not had any significant delays in OFF deliveries.  All 
Wakils are in place and willing to continue working. 
 
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AL QADISIY DAM 
-------------- 
 
15.  The Al Qadisiy dam, designed by the Soviets and 
completed in the late 1970s, produces 15 to 20 percent of 
Iraq's electricity.  There are three main lines of 400 
kilovolt-amperes (KVAs) and six smaller ones of 132 KVA. 
The three main lines run to western Baghdad, Al Qa'im (near 
Syria), and Bayji (north of Tikrit).  The Corps of Engineers 
is working at the dam, and local Iraqi staff continue to 
manage the day-to-day operations on a 24-hour basis. 
According to Corps of Engineers personnel, the Al Qa'im line 
should be fully powered in days.  The dam's normal peak 
production is 200 megawatts.  Today, it is producing 125mw. 
 
16.  The 8 kilometer-long dam normally employs 300 people, 
although there are only 50 currently at work.  Most staff 
should be receiving their monthly salary within days from 
existing Iraqi funds that had been earmarked for the staff. 
The dam is run by the Ministry of Electricity and "owned" by 
the Ministry of Irrigation.  The Corps of Engineers arrived 
on 5 April to assess and help run the dam.  They found 
minimal structural damage and said that the plant had not 
been looted, although hard drives had been removed from 
computers. 
 
JONES