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A REPORT CARD FOR IRAQ
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 ELECTRICITY
The power grid was in great disrepair before the war and severely looted and sabotaged afterward. Power generation peaked at 4,066 megawatts on March 11, under the 4,400 prewar level.As of Feb. 20, all 18 provinces had 10 hours of electricity per day with some peaking at more than 16. Baghdad’s electricity is on for about 75 percent of the day, with rolling blackouts in most neighborhoods. Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, has a nearly 24-hour power supply.
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 WATER AND SANITATION
Major water treatment facilities are operating at about 65 percent of capacity. Nationwide, supply has reached prewar levels in some provinces, and the coalition believes that 90 percent of Iraqis will have potable water by April 2005. In Baghdad, all three of its sewage treatment plants are inoperable. Waste from its 3.8-million people currently flows untreated into the Tigris River. One plant is scheduled to come back online in April. |
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 COMMUNICATIONS
Before the war, 1.2-million Iraqis — most of them in Baghdad — subscribed to land-line phone service. The network was severely damaged during the war. Thirteen new Baghdad switching stations began working in February. A new International Satellite Gateway was installed, but on March 3, three rockets hit an exchange, knocking out international phone service for much of Iraq only days after it began. The fiber optic network was repaired well enough to reconnect Baghdad to 20 other cities, comprising 70 percent of the population. |
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 HEALTH
In September, administrator L. Paul Bremer said all 240 hospitals in Iraq were functioning, along with 90 percent of the country’s 1200 clinics. USAID is equipping 600 facilities in seven target provinces for primary health care services. An estimated 3-million children under five have been vaccinated. By the end of April, it is expected that 90 percent of pregnant women and children under five will have up-to-date vaccinations. |
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 EDUCATION
Isolation and lack of funds devastated Iraq’s once first-class education system. About 80 percent of Iraq’s 13,500 schools need repair, and almost a quarter of all 6-year-olds to 11-year-olds do not attend class. All 22 universities and 43 institutes and colleges are open, along with almost all primary and secondary schools. More than 2,300 of the nation’s schools have been rehabilitated. |
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 OIL
A year ago, as the American invasion neared, the Iraqi oil industry was at a virtual standstill. Today, exports average 1.7-million to 1.8-million barrels a day, compared with 2-million to 2.3-million barrels before the war. But total production has risen to 2.3-million to 2.5-million barrels a day, nearly to prewar levels of 2.8-million barrels. |
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Research by Natalie Watson and Kitty Bennett of the Times staff.
Sources: Associated Press, U.S. Agency for International Development, Agence France Presse, New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Defense Department. |
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