{"id":34111,"date":"2013-05-17T11:08:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T10:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/iraq-in-ruins-post-war-life-overshadowed-by-crumbling-infrastructure-corruption-poverty\/34111\/"},"modified":"2013-05-17T11:08:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T10:08:12","slug":"iraq-in-ruins-post-war-life-overshadowed-by-crumbling-infrastructure-corruption-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/iraq-in-ruins-post-war-life-overshadowed-by-crumbling-infrastructure-corruption-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq in ruins: Post-war life overshadowed by crumbling infrastructure, corruption, poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Published time: May 17, 2013 09:56 <\/span>
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Despite Iraq being rich in natural resources and the US pouring money into its economy for over a decade, Iraqi infrastructure is constantly failing and the people are forced to beg, as RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov reported from the war-torn country.<\/p>\n

In spite of billions of dollars spent on reconstruction
\nfollowing the decade-long conflict, many neighborhoods lack
\nsewerage systems and trash collection services. In some
\nsettlements, there are barely any streets. Water is also a big
\nproblem, locals pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody drinks the city water because we know it\u2019s not clean.
\nSince the war, I\u2019ve had to rely on bottled water. What comes out of
\nthe tap is contaminated and makes us sick. How can we drink
\nit?\u201d<\/i> local resident Umm Muhammad indicated.<\/p>\n

Central power is another issue, with the system sometimes on for as
\nlittle as two hours a day.<\/p>\n

Electrician from Baghdad Abu Meria is sure the new government is to
\nblame for the chaos that reigning in his homeland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the citizens who suffer in the end, not the government.
\nThe services are so bad and the power system has really
\ndeteriorated. There were billions spent on fixing the grid but
\nthere\u2019s little to show for it.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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Abu Meria now earns four times more than before the war due to
\nthe frequent failures and blackouts all over the city.<\/p>\n

As RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov also discovered, the crumbling
\ninfrastructure is closely entangled with rampant corruption.<\/p>\n

Transparency International group has ranked Iraq as the eighth
\nmost-corrupt state in the world. In the latest scandal, the
\ncountry\u2019s Electricity Ministry was involved in a $1.7 billion fraud
\ncase.<\/p>\n

On the backdrop of this, most Iraqis remain impoverished,
\nstruggling to make their ends meet. In the Al Tajiat landfill, on
\nthe outskirts of Baghdad, people are actually forced to live \u2014
\nwithout any proper living conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no schools for the kids here, no electricity, no
\nreal houses. To get a drink of water we have to travel 4km. It\u2019s
\nvery difficult to live here.\u201d<\/i> Watch RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov\u2019s full
\nreport.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: May 17, 2013 09:56 Embed Code Despite Iraq being rich in natural resources and the US pouring money into its economy for over a decade, Iraqi infrastructure is constantly failing and the people are forced to beg, as RT\u2019s Lucy Kafanov reported from the war-torn country. In spite of billions of dollars spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}