Electricity top priority in Basra (BBC)

[Roland99]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4077294.stm

Local residents are lucky to get more than three or four hours a day, even less than what they had before the war.

A better electricity supply is a higher priority than even security in the south of Iraq.

American and British-led reconstruction efforts have focused on both increasing the power supply and upgrading the transmission network.

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Local people and officials working in the sector complain that much of the electricity generated in Basra is diverted to Baghdad - a practice which was employed by Saddam Hussein's government.