A U.S.-funded water-treatment system for the city of Fallujah [that was meant to show US commitment to rebuilding the predominantly Sunni city] will be completed at least three years late, cost more than three times as much as originally planned and serve only a fraction of the city, according to a report by the official monitoring Iraq’s reconstruction.
The $32.5 million project was launched in July 2004 — when insurgents largely controlled the city — and U.S. officials expected it to be completed in January 2006, according to [the October 2008 quarterly report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction]. Now, the main contractor assigned to the project has been let go, costs have ballooned to $98 million and the system, which is expected to be operational in April [2009] , will serve 38 percent of the city’s 400,000 residents, inspector general Stuart W. Bowen Jr. concluded.
[...]
The multibillion-dollar U.S. effort to rebuild Iraq’s ailing infrastructure has been stymied by violence, bureaucratic infighting, poor performance by contractors and disagreements between American and Iraqi officials.
Read more: Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post, 27 Oct 2008
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