iatp.org)
Posted: 04/02/2003 By jeaton
ca.inter.net
Right to Water (right-to-wateriatp.org)
Posted: 04/02/2003 By jeatonca.inter.net
In his first visit to the nation of 25 million he would effectively administer, retired Gen. Jay Garner rejected the American plan to set up Iraqi vendors to sell water to people in the impoverished city and endorsed the British effort to give away water here.
Garner sought to gloss over what had become an increasingly angry U.S.-British dispute on the direction and goals of the relief effort. The Americans wanted to jump-start a free-market economy by letting Iraqi contractors sell water at a modest profit to encourage private business in general.
But British officers were exasperated at what they viewed as a heavy-handed and unrealistic American attempt to impose supply-side economic theory on what is essentially a barter economy in the aftermath of dictatorship and war.
fyi-janet
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/72018p-66780c.html
UMM QASR, Iraq - The American who will run Iraq after the war crossed into the country yesterday and promptly had to settle a dispute between American and British allies over how to distribute water. In his first visit to the nation of 25 million he would effectively administer, retired Gen. Jay Garner rejected the American plan to set up Iraqi vendors to sell water to people in the impoverished city and endorsed the British effort to give away water here.
"I think we're beginning to get a handle on this," said Garner, who will head the Defense Department's new Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid in Iraq.
"I think the British are doing a great job. We're working great together," he said.
Garner, an affable Southerner with a reputation for getting factions with opposing views pointed in the same direction, said the goal of his office is to restore services until the Iraqis are ready to resume their own governance.
"We'll begin to turn things over right away," Garner said, but he could not give a timetable for the rebuilding effort that several Washington think tanks estimate could cost more than $90 billion and take at least five years.
"We want to show the Iraqi people that we're not here to occupy Iraq. We're here to liberate Iraq," he said.
The first test for Garner is in this port city of about 40,000, which is also the first major urban area liberated by the coalition.
Garner sought to gloss over what had become an increasingly angry U.S.-British dispute on the direction and goals of the relief effort. The Americans wanted to jump-start a free-market economy by letting Iraqi contractors sell water at a modest profit to encourage private business in general.
But British officers were exasperated at what they viewed as a heavy-handed and unrealistic American attempt to impose supply-side economic theory on what is essentially a barter economy in the aftermath of dictatorship and war.
"We're going to build on what the British have done," Garner said, putting an end to the initial U.S. approach that was enthusiastically outlined Monday by Army Col. David Bassert of the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade.
Bassert grudgingly admitted defeat yesterday.
"Please accept my apologies for being incorrect yesterday, but what I told you was correct yesterday," he said.
Bassert said seven Iraqi contractors had been hired to distribute water, and "they are not to charge for water."
But he made clear he has reservations about the new plan. He said selling water was meant to nudge the Iraqis into free-market practices "so that they don't get used to a welfare system."
Whether the policy was succeeding its first application in Umm Qasr was difficult to gauge, as the military has limited access to the city.
The first representatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived here yesterday and attempted to visit a tiny makeshift fruit and vegetable market. The agency personnel were met with sullen stares and beat a hasty retreat to their sport-utility vehicle after a five-minute stay. They returned to the heavily guarded U.S. outpost at the port compound.
Originally published on April 2, 2003
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