April 27, 2003
DART Field Team West began assessing communities along the Euphrates River northeast of Ar Ramadi on April 27. The DART traveled the main highway between Ar Rutbah and the intersection with Highway 12. The DART assessed both the Heet and Al Hadithah communities in Al Anbar governorate. In general, the DART found no significant immediate emergency needs in these communities. Electricity and food are available, potable water systems are operating, markets are open, and the public distribution system (PDS) is functioning.
General Conditions in Heet
Heet had only intermittent loss of electricity and water during and after the war, and utilities are now at pre-war levels. The biggest problem appears to be a lack of propane gas for cooking fuel. Some residents reported that they were beginning to use wood as cooking fuel. The market and shops were open and busy with many different vegetables and meats for sale, although eggs, milk, and fruits were not visible.
In Heet, the DART visited the Oil for Food (OFF) program flour mill, which is operating. According to the OFF mill manager in Heet, all four Anbar mills are functioning at full capacity and producing a combined total of 13,000 metric tons (MT) per month. According to the manager, this OFF milling operation serves approximately 1.25 million beneficiaries.
The Heet mill is located on Highway 12 north from Ar Ramadi. Heet's power grid was providing electricity, and diesel fuel for the plant's back-up generators was available. The plant was well-managed, clean, and running at full capacity. The DART was invited inside facility to photograph and observe mill operations, which included grain milling, bagging, and dock loading for immediate shipment of flour to the Anbar flour agents. The Heet mill is supplied by the grain warehouse and silo in Ar Ramadi. The mill manager stated that the Ar Ramadi warehouse has 40,000 MT of grain in stock. This information needs to be confirmed.
Although a rapid assessment of the public distribution system (PDS) was not conducted, a local flour agent stated that other food supplies for Heet are adequate. He also stated that recent OFF deliveries of rice, oil, and beans were insufficient and that Heet's Wakhils (PDS agents) were present and working.
The mill manager expressed concerns that donations of wheat flour would have adverse affects on milling industry in the area and asked the DART "not to bring flour to Heet." The Heet mill employs 50 workers who are paid through income generated by milling waste. According to mill operations manager, 85 percent of whole grain is converted to high quality flour. The remaining 15 percent is used to make a lesser quality flour for bread products and is sold. Proceeds from these sales compensate the mill owner who then pays the workers.
General Conditions in Al Hadithah
Al Hadithah lacked electricity and water for only a short period during the war and is now at pre-war utility standards. The telephone system is functional within city limits. The market and shops were open and busy with many different vegetables and meats for sale, although eggs, milk, and fruits were not visible. One building had been converted into the local headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress Party with a sign out front that read "Welcome to Democracy." Coalition forces and the Corps of
Engineers are based near the Al Qadisiy Dam, and 27 April 27 they detonated several caches of arms, explosives, and unexploded ordinance (UXOs) near the city.
Al Hadithah's Hospital and Health Conditions
According to Hospital Director Dr. Khayoun Abdullah, the Al Hadithah General Hospital and its network of five primary health centers treated 86 people with injuries sustained from the conflict. Another 31 died from war-related injuries. Since the war's end, three children and one adult were injured by UXOs. The hospital itself was damaged by a bomb that fell in a cemetery 50 meters from the hospital, smashing some of the facility's windows. Throughout the city, 30 houses were destroyed. Occupants of these houses are currently staying in the homes of extended family members.
The hospital, and the city, had electricity and water for all but a few days during the war. The director's primary concern is a lack of certain equipment and essential drugs, such as antibiotics and medicines for chronic diseases, although he admitted this shortage had been an ongoing problem. The hospital had sufficient supplies of oxygen that the director said was of 99.6 percent concentration.
Dr. Abdullah said there was not a childhood nutrition problem in Al Hadithah, with only 10 to 20 children transferred to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Ar Ramadi in the last 12 years for nutritional problems. The most common health problems were amoebic dysentery, acute respiratory infections, gastro-intestinal problems, and in the last 5 to 10 years, tuberculosis.
The hospital, serving the community of 80,000, has a nutrition rehabilitation center but chronically lacks therapeutic milk. CARE regularly supplements the hospital's supply of milk and, last year, rehabilitated the facility. The city does not have a community pediatric unit but does have an ongoing immunization program.
Food in Al Hadithah
According to the Wakhil manager of the Haqlaniyah and Barwanah Wakhils, the PDS system is functioning and food supplies are sufficient for the next two to three months. Haqlaniyah and Barwanah are two smaller communities near Hadithah and are served by approximately 145 Wakhils. They have not had any significant delays in OFF deliveries. All Wakhils are in place and willing to continue working.
Al Qadisiy Dam
The Al Qadisiy dam, designed by the Soviets and completed in the late 1970s, produces 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's electricity. There are three main lines of 400 kilovolt-amperes (kvas) and six smaller ones of 132 kvas The three main lines run to western Baghdad, Al Qa'im (near Syria), and Bayji (north of Tikrit). The Corps of Engineers is working at the dam, and local Iraqi staff continue to manage the day-to-day operations on a 24-hour basis. According to Corps of Engineers personnel, the Al Qa'im line should be fully powered in days. The dam's normal peak production is 200 megawatts. Today, it is producing 125.
The 8 kilometer-long dam normally employs 300 people, although there are only 50 currently at work. Most staff should be receiving their monthly salary within days from existing Iraqi funds that had been earmarked for the staff. The dam is run by the Ministry of Electricity and "owned" by the Ministry of Irrigation. The Corps of Engineers arrived on April 5 to assess and help run the dam. They found minimal structural damage and said that the plant had not been looted, although hard drives had been removed from computers.
