Campaign to redevelop Sadr City

 

By Ali Kareem

 

Azzaman, 2004-11-04

 

The interim government has earmarked 40 billion dinars to renovate Sadr City in Baghdad.

 

Formerly know as Saddam City, the low-income neighborhood was scene of ferocious fighting between the militiamen of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and US-led troops.

 

The run-down city of more than two million inhabitants is in urgent need of municipal services.

 

Untreated water inundates streets and seeps through leaking pure water pipes.

 

Many streets will have to be paved and mounds of garbage and debris removed.

 

Redevelopment is part of the terms under which the militiamen agreed to lay down their arms.

 

Other conditions include withdrawal of US forces in return for surrender by insurgents of heavy weapons.

 

However, the sum – equivalent to about $30 million – falls short of what the interim authorities had pledged.

 

The inhabitants say they were expecting a total of $500 million.

 

Neglected under the former regime and occasionally punished for challenging Saddam Hussein’s rule, the city is among the most impoverished and backward in the country.

 

Ali Laaibi of Baghdad Municipality said four state-run companies would immediately start refurbishing the city.

 

He said priority will be given to sewage schemes, pavement of streets and keeping the narrow lanes of the sprawling city clean and tidy.

 

Despite their abject poverty, the inhabitants are highly organized – thanks to clergymen and committees loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr.

 

The city has several councils, each representing a district.

 

But Laaibi said members of these councils were meddling in Baghdad Municipality’s activities and thereby hindering smooth implementation of projects.

 

Mustafa Dhaher, a resident, said there was a lot of frustration in the city mainly because of “broken promises.”

 

He said the inhabitants, who suffered under Saddam Hussein, were hoping the new era would bring jobs and prosperity.

 

“We have seen nothing. And on the contrary we saw the worse as US troops did not even spare power lines and pylons during their bombardment of the city,” he said.

 

Jaber Ghazi said the city needed a “comprehensive development program” that will change it from a run-down neighborhood into a modern one.

 

Ali Kadhem accused the interim authorities of reneging on promises they made during the fighting which continued for nearly six months.

 

He said the authorities had pledged to compensate the inhabitants who had suffered as a result of fighting but so far there no sigh that they are going to do so.