To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects his Department has implemented to improve the availability of electricity to local people in (a) Basra, (b) Maysan, (c) Dhi Qar and (d) Al Muthanna provinces; and how much was spent on such projects in each year since 2003. (170815)

Since 2003, DFID has allocated over £100 million for infrastructure regeneration projects. This has helped create employment for several thousand Iraqis in repairing some of southern Iraq's key infrastructure. We have already added or secured 415 MW of electricity to the Iraqi national grid, and will be adding or securing a further 60 MW over the next few months—this is the equivalent to providing 24 hour electricity for around one million people. 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).

Since 2003, we have spent the following amounts to improve electricity in southern Iraq (we do not have this information broken down by individual governorates).