World Bank planning Iraqi infrastructure projects (12/08/04)

The World Bank is aiming to embark on its first reconstruction projects in Iraq since the overthrowing of the previous regime, the head of the bank's Iraq program declared on Monday. Faris Hadad-Zervos said that the projects would improve infrastructure within Iraq, helping to provide water and sanitation and to rehabilitate schools.

The bank's interim reconstruction program for Iraq estimates projects for Iraq, which also include labour-intensive irrigation schemes, are likely to cost between $400 and $600 million. The World Bank officially recognised the new Iraqi government on 29 June, the day after it was sworn in, opening the way for money to be loaned to the country.

"We actually hope to begin the phase of implementation by October. The projects are in infrastructure rehabilitation, water and sanitation and school rehabilitation," Hadad-Zervos said. He was speaking in Amman, where the bank's Iraq mission has been based since August 2003. He said that donors would review the World Bank infrastructure projects along with other UN programs undertaken in Iraq in a coordination meeting in Tokyo on 12-14 October.

A $60 million emergency school rehabilitation project to undertake urgent repairs to some schools before the 2004/2005 school year would be signed before the Tokyo meeting, he added. The World Bank was also lending help to ease Iraq's transition to a market economy, Hadad-Zervos added. The financing comes from almost $400 million deposited in a UN World Bank trust fund for Iraqi reconstruction set up by an international-donors conference last October in Madrid.