Work on the prison in the town of Khan Bani Sa’ad in Diyala province began in 2004, when the U.S. was in the middle of committing more than $50 billion to rebuild the war-torn country. But problems arose that derailed the project, including cost overruns by contractor Parsons Delaware and local outbreaks of violence. The project was abandoned in June 2007 and $1.2 million in materials were left behind at the site. Only 18 of Parsons’ 53 Iraq construction projects were ever completed.

 

The prison is now part of what Stuart Bowen, the head of the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has called “a significant legacy of waste” by the U.S.

 

Other examples include the $4.9 billion spent to reconstruct Iraq’s electrical grid—which today provides only a few hours of electricity in most places. There also is a $165 million children’s hospital that goes unused in southern Iraq and a $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah that hasn’t changed the fact that raw sewage still runs through the town’s streets.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

A U.S. 'Legacy of Waste' in Iraq (by Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times)

United States Wastes Billions in Iraq (by Kim Gamel, Associated Press)

U.S. Wasted $3-5 billion in Iraq Reconstruction…Next Stop—Afghanistan (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Kahn Bani Sa’ad Correctional Facility, Kahn Bani Sa’ad, Iraq (Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction) (pdf)