(2) how much the Government have spent on rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq since the fall of Saddam.
Since March 2003, the UK Government have budgeted £744 million for the reconstruction and development of Iraq. Our contribution will help the Iraqi Government, at provincial and national level, to plan and deliver investment in basic services (electricity, hospitals, etc.), improve oil production, generate jobs and manage its own resources more effectively.
DFID has committed over £100 million to infrastructure projects in Iraq, and disbursed over £80 million so far. Our work on improving power and water supply has helped create employment for several thousand Iraqis in repairing some of southern Iraq's key infrastructure.
DFID power projects have added or secured 350 MW of electricity to the Iraqi national grid, and will be adding or securing a further 120 MW over the next six months. This has been achieved by repairing damaged electricity transmission and distribution networks, including transmission lines from Al-Hartha power station to Basra city (securing electricity supplies for 1.5 million residents), and the Al-Hartha power station chimney (securing electricity supplies for 340,000 people).
By late 2007 DF1D will have improved access to water for one million people. We have replaced 200 kilometres of water mains, repaired over 5,000 leaks, cleared out 7,000 septic tanks and cleared over 40 kilometres of drains. We have refurbished a reverse osmosis unit to supply potable water to about 500,000 people, improved water supply to 60,000 people in Al Amtahiyah, constructed a water training centre in Basra to increase the skills of Iraqi engineers in water treatment and leakage repair, and provided technical advice for a major sewage installation in Al Amarah, providing up to half the city's population with access to a piped system and replacing open sewage channels.