US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT2133

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KUWAIT 002133 
 
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 
ANKARA FOR AMB WRPEARSON, ECON AJSIROTIC AND DART 
AMMAN FOR USAID AND DART 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREF, IZ, WFP 
SUBJECT:  DART ASSESSMENT OF SAMAWAH 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  DART Field Team West visited Samawah, the capital of Al 
Muthanna governorate on 15 May.  Overall, vital services in 
the city appear to be operating at pre-war levels. 
Electricity and water remain sporadic.  Hospitals and public 
health centers are operating, schools are open, stores and 
markets are busy, and local government has been re- 
established.  The DART held separate meetings with the 
city's deputy mayor, representatives for the French NGO, 
Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), 
and Coalition forces.  End Summary. 
 
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MEETING WITH SAMAWAH DEPUTY MAYOR 
--------------------------------- 
 
2.  The DART met with the newly selected Deputy Mayor of 
Samawa, a recently returned Iraqi exile who was selected by 
the city council approximately three weeks ago.  The council 
meets twice a week, and the Deputy Mayor meets three times a 
week with Coalition personnel. 
 
3.  The Deputy Mayor informed the DART that electricity, 
which comes from An Nasiriyah, is sporadic.  Sometimes it 
runs all day; on other days it only runs between three and 
four hours per day.  (Note:  This was confirmed in 
subsequent interviews with ACTED, local population, and 
Coalition forces.  End Note.)  This, in turn, means that the 
water system only functions sporadically.  According to the 
Deputy Mayor, this problem existed before the war, but now 
people's expectations are higher.  He stated,  "Now the 
people ask for more because they have the freedom to talk." 
 
4.  The city has one general hospital and one 
maternal/pediatric hospital.  There are 28 public health 
centers in Al Muthana governorate.  All are operating and 
have basic medical supplies.  (Note:  The DART did not visit 
local health facilities due to time constraints, but relied 
instead on information from the Deputy Mayor, ACTED, and 
Coalition forces.  End Note.) 
 
5.  Government services and systems are beginning to resume 
function, and the Deputy Mayor reported that salaries have 
been paid.  The USD 20 emergency stipend was also being 
paid, and the DART witnessed the payment process at city 
hall.  Garbage collection is also taking place, although at 
reduced capacity due to the looting of some of the garbage 
trucks.  The criminal justice system is functioning.  The 
city council has selected three new judges who are 
processing old cases.  The local police force is also 
functioning.  Schools re-opened at the beginning of May. 
The former regime had used 17 of the schools as ammunition 
dumps, but Coalition forces have cleared all of these 
schools of unexploded ordnance (UXO).  The local university 
is scheduled to re-open on 17 May. 
 
6.  A local sheik has funded the establishment of a local 
television station and a local weekly newspaper.  A crew 
from the local television station was present during the 
entire interview, and the event was filmed for the evening 
news.  The newspaper also showed up later to photograph the 
DART. 
 
7.  The public distribution system (PDS) is in place and 
distributions are scheduled to resume at the beginning of 
June.  There is a shortage of LPG cooking gas, but kerosene 
is available and "affordable", according to the Deputy Mayor 
and others present in the meeting.  The Deputy Mayor listed 
as priorities improvements to the chronic problems of 
electricity, water, and sewage. 
 
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ACTED'S RECOMMENDED INTERVENTIONS 
--------------------------------- 
 
8.  ACTED representatives based in Samawah offered the DART 
their opinions of the city and governorate's main problems 
in water, sanitation, health, and agriculture, and potential 
emergency solutions for water and sanitation.  Overall, most 
problems in Samawah are chronic rather than symptoms caused 
by the war, according to ACTED.  However, residents were apt 
to complain because their expectations of Coalition-led 
improvements were great. 
 
9.  The water from the Euphrates and most of the 
governorate's water tables and canals is too salty for human 
consumption.  Samawah's drinking water flows through a 
faulty pipeline to its water-treatment center (WTC) from a 
source located 20 kilometers to the north where there is a 
pumping station and a WTC.  There are two compact units 
midway in the pipeline that sends water to 10 to 15 
villages.  Most villages in Al Muthanna are not on the 
pipeline and receive tankered water on an irregular basis. 
 
10.  ACTED proposes four immediate interventions: 1) repair 
the leakage on the main pipeline that reduces capacity by 20 
percent; 2) improve the capacity of the WTCs in Ar Rumaythah 
and Samawa, and the pumping station in Ar Rumaythah; 3) 
rehabilitate the two compact units; and 4) develop a 
comprehensive and regular rural water-distribution system 
using tankers.  Some looted tankers would need to be 
replaced and others added to reach full coverage. 
 
11.  With no sewage-sewer system, raw waste flows directly 
into the Euphrates River via the storm-sewer system.  Many 
neighborhoods rely on septic-system networks for every three 
to four thousand people; however, some systems are blocked 
and others not functioning.  ACTED proposes the following 
sanitation interventions for Samawah: 1) clean the storm- 
sewer system's pumping station and tanks that are filled 
with sedimentation; 2) make emergency repairs and remove 
overflowing waste from a particular neighborhood's septic 
system that is faulty and is causing a health hazard; 3) 
temporarily rent trucks to replace looted garbage trucks to 
carry out solid-waste disposal; and 4) implement a rural 
sanitation education program, promoting improved latrines 
and sanitary methods. 
 
12.  ACTED found Samawah's two hospitals to be relatively 
modern, "impressive," and with good doctors, athough they 
lacked some basic medicines, oxygen, and blood-testing 
capacity.  The hospitals also needed general maintenance. 
The biggest problem for children was diarrhea, and for 
adults, chest infections.  There were unsubstantiated fears 
of typhoid fever, malaria, and cholera.  The one primary 
health center ACTED visited lacked all basic drugs.  UXOs 
were a serious rural, but not urban, problem. 
 
13.  Al Muthanna is slowly losing arable land as salty water 
and poor irrigation erodes soil fertility, causing an 
increasing rural livelihood problem.  This month, Al 
Muthanna wheat farmers face calamity as the stalled Oil for 
Food Program (OFF) prevents the purchase of local crops. 
Farmers harvested their wheat earlier this month and are 
storing it in their silos, unable to sell it to dealers who 
would normally sell it to the government.  Al Muthanna 
wheat, nearly the sole crop in Al Muthanna, yields a paltry 
150 kilograms per "doneem," or quarter hectare.  It comes in 
two varieties: 1) "Mastaback" wheat for human consumption; 
and 2) "scheen" wheat for animals.  Before the war, farmers 
had no incentive to diversify or seek other livelihood 
initiatives because they became dependent on the OFF. 
 
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MEETING WITH COALITION FORCES 
----------------------------- 
 
14.  The DART spoke briefly with Coalition forces, who 
reported that a mass grave, containing between 100 and 600 
bodies, was found ten days ago on the outskirts of Samawah. 
When uncovered, many, if not all seemed to have been 
executed, including women and children.  Some had bullet 
holes in their heads and others were bound and blindfolded. 
The site is being secured 24 hours a day, seven days a week 
by Coalition forces.  Asking if there is tension amongst the 
community because of Coalition presence at the site, the 
DART was told that the locals have usually been appreciative 
of any military presence accorded to them. 
 
15.  Coalition forces are also working on the local justice 
system in Samawah.  Three judges were appointed on 8 May by 
the attorneys union and are currently trying cases.  Out of 
seventeen judges, sixteen were fired because of their close 
connection to the Ba'ath Party and history of corruption. 
Interestingly, because the laws significantly changed when 
Saddam Hussein took over leadership of Iraq (generally not 
for the better), the Coalition appointment letter to the 
judges specifically includes language that states "You are 
charged to enforce the good and just laws of the Iraqi 
people." 
 
JONES