Study finds one in three Iraqis in poverty

from The Concord Monitor

Water, power, jobs are especially scarce

By Christian Berthelsen

One-third of Iraqis live in poverty, according to a new study released under U.N. auspices yesterday, dire findings for a nation that enjoyed widespread prosperity less than three decades ago.

The report, produced by a division of the Iraqi government and the United Nations Development Program, examined access to, and the quality of, a wide variety of basic needs, including water, electricity, sanitation, health care, housing, roads and employment.

It found that by 2004, Iraqi living standards had deteriorated considerably from the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the categories of water, electricity and sanitation, as well as employment and income.

A subtext to the report is how much the eroding conditions are contributing to Iraq's civil war. Although the report made no official findings on the subject, a top U.N. official in Jordan said yesterday that poverty and deprivation offer "a very fertile ground to recruitment" for militant activity.

"When you are jobless, when you don't have electricity and water, you become more vulnerable to being recruited by extremist groups," Paolo Lembo, the director of the U.N. Development Program in Iraq, said in an interview. "My personal opinion is, yes, it is a contributing factor."

The survey was based on data collected in 2004 as part of a survey of Iraqi living conditions, conducted by a division of Iraq's Ministry for Planning and Development and the United Nations.

The data is three years old and does not capture the continued deterioration in living standards since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but human-rights officials say the report is useful because it is the first comprehensive study of its kind in Iraq.

Although living standards began to decline under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, through two wars and crippling economic sanctions that followed, the report also takes direct aim at economic policies been put in place in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.

The policies dismantled state-run enterprises that employed hundreds of thousands and ended subsidies once received by individuals and families.

The report found Iraq's damaged infrastructure to be the single largest factor in creating poor living conditions. It found that 85 percent of households lacked a stable source of electricity, with weekly or daily outages. Nearly 70 percent of households struggled with trash disposal, and more than 40 percent had no healthy sanitation facilities.

Among health concerns, deprivation levels were seen as a factor in malnourishment.

Residents in the country's mostly Shiite south were found to suffer from the greatest amount of deprivation, while Baghdad and northern Iraq had the highest living standards. Deprivation levels were three times higher in rural areas than urban areas.

The report's authors urged officials in charge of Iraq's reconstruction to slow efforts to privatize the economy and better help residents cope with the change. "It's not a criticism to anyone, it's a reality we must address," Lembo said.