Daily Living Conditions in Iraq Dismal, UN Survey Finds
New York, May 12 2005 12:00PM
Daily living conditions in Iraq are dismal, with families suffering from intermittent water and electricity supply,
chronic malnutrition among children and more illiterate young than ever before, a new report by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and the Iraqi Government shows.
“While many aspects of living conditions in Iraq in 2004 are dismal, most reflect the courage, endurance and
determination of the Iraqi people to overcome the hurdles they are facing,” Staffan de Mistura, the UN Deputy Special
Representative for Humanitarian, Reconstruction and Development Affairs, said at the ceremony to launch the three-volume
survey.
Despite the conflict, the society was functioning, though under considerable stress, he quoted survey results as
showing.
Iraqi questioners, trained by a Norwegian research non-governmental organization (NGO), asked 22,000 households in 18
governorates about their housing, infrastructure, population, health, education, work, income and the status of women,
and the analysis followed international standards for statistical reporting.
Although a large percentage of the population in Iraq is connected to water, electricity and sewage networks, the supply
has been too unstable to make a difference to people’s lives, the survey results show.
Almost a quarter of the children between 6 months and 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition. The young today are more
illiterate than preceding generations and this, in a country where 39 per cent of the people are younger than 15. Young
men with a high school education or better are suffering from 37 per cent unemployment.
The survey “not only allows for a good understanding of socio-economic conditions in Iraq, but will also be a building
block for further analysis that will certainly benefit the development and reconstruction processes in Iraq,” Mr. de
Mistura said.
“It will be especially helpful in addressing the grave disparities – urban and rural as well as those between the
governorates – revealed by the survey, in a more prioritized and targeted fashion.”
ENDS