Military Officer - May 2006 - (Page 49)

USACE personnel provide management oversight and expertise in construction design and contracting. U.S. dollars are to be applied to projects that expand essential services and develop infrastructure. The World Bank estimated after the 2003 invasion that it would take $70 billion to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. “We’ve applied about $20 billion to the problem,” says McCoy. “Our intent all along was to jumpstart the process. We were not ever intending to rebuild this country.” ly down for scheduled maintenance. In Iraq, besides such scheduled maintenance, another quarter of capacity is always down because of equipment failures or because Iraqi operators have run out of fuel. USACE is training Iraqis for a new electrical distribution system Electrical mess McCoy, 54, arrived in Iraq last June. “I don’t think we’re making an absolute big difference right now” in the lives of many Iraqis, says McCoy with characteristic candor. “But I think they can see a brighter horizon than they could before.” Of the $18.4 billion that Congress last appropriated to rebuild Iraq, McCoy controls $12 billion, enough to fund 3,600 projects. They include sewer and water treatment plants; electrical generation systems; the refurbishing of oil ﬁelds and oil distribution networks; and construction of schools, clinics, and a wide range of facilities for the Iraqi Army and police force. As of late January, more than 2,200 projects had been completed, and work had begun on 1,000 others, leaving 400 projects still to start. The biggest, most costly infrastructure challenge is modernizing Iraq’s electrical distribution system. McCoy says that since the occupation of Iraq began, power-generation capacity has been increased by 7,300 megawatts, enough to serve 6.75 million additional users. But the powertransmission system, neglected for 30 years, continually breaks down. In the United States, a quarter of power-generation capacity is usualPHOTO: FALEH KHEIBER/REUTERS/CORBIS “They’re just humans too, with families and needs and problems, and looking for a good job.” — Lt. Joel McMillan, USN ter allows it, collecting a fee that he says helps pay teacher salaries and buy fuel. McCoy says sabotage to power lines in north Baghdad routinely disrupts electricity inside the city and has reduced Iraq’s power supply by 12 percent. But McCoy characterized that loss as small compared to other problems with the electric grid. Sabotage is a fact of life in the new Iraq. A spokesman for Iraq’s oil ministry said that in 2005 the coun- An Army engineer enjoys a moment with Iraqi workers at an electricity plant north of Baghdad. Their task was to build a new turbine. with automatic controls. Until it’s in place, McCoy says, avoiding outages or disruptions by swift transfer of power from one grid to another isn’t possible. Iraqi needs include highpower grids, substations, and new power lines to replace “spaghetti networks of lines” running in and out of houses and businesses. McMillan has seen some of that. As ofﬁcer in charge of USACE’s resident ofﬁce in Taji, McMillan learned that a new school, built with U.S. dollars, has neighbors who tap into the generator at night and on weekends. The schoolmas- try suffered $6.25 billion in losses to sabotage from damage and lost export revenues. The attacks delay projects and escalate costs. USACE and the Iraqi government have taken steps to protect infrastructure, including hardening manifolds and valves with concrete, covering supply lines with berms, and stationing even more guards at critical locations, McCoy says. “Is it easy? No. It takes a change in the attitude of the people,” McCoy says. “My sense of the Iraqi people is that over 95 percent … want to move M AY 2 0 0 6 MILITARY OFFICER 49

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Military Officer - May 2006 Contents From the Editor President's Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Raising Iraq Dogfight Fun Caring For Our Own Pages of History Information Exchange MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - May 2006

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