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The Associated Press
Thu May 22, 2003

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The electricity shortages that have plagued Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster will taper off soon, but the country needs massive investments in the next few years to fix its energy sector, the U.N. development agency said Thursday.

Three wars in the past two decades and 12 years of U.N. sanctions have left Iraq's infrastructure with an electricity deficit estimated at 2,400 megawatts, said Maurice Albert, chief adviser for the U.N. Development Program. The country currently produces about 1,800 megawatts.

Although most power plants are dilapidated and need overhauls, they are still functioning. Other parts of the national energy grid, including transmissionlines, need immediate rehabilitation after damage during the U.S. bombing and fighting during the war, Albert said.

The U.S.-led administration that has been running the country has been criticized for its failure to restore basic public services and utilities since Saddam's government was ousted last month.

There also has been growing public resentment about the constant power cuts in Baghdad and other major cities. The new authorities have identified the restoration of electricity, which also powers water treatment and sewage plants, as a crucial part of their efforts to normalize the situation in Iraq.

The United Nations has been closely involved with Iraq's power-generation system since 1996 as part of its humanitarian program.

Albert said both Iraqi contractors and coalition engineering units were being enlisted to repair the grid.

"I expect the situation to improve very soon," he said at a U.N. briefing in Baghdad.

In the long run, he said, it will take billions of dollars to replace obsolete power plants built in the 1950s and 1960s and to reconstruct the entire power grid.

Iraq used to have one of the most modern infrastructures in the Middle East. But it started decaying with the onset of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, when investments in maintenance dried up, experts say.

The decay has only deepened since U.N. sanctions were introduced in 1990 after Saddam's invasion of neighboring Kuwait