(SABAH ARAR/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES ) - Iraqi construction workers shovel stones at a building site in Baghdad on June 7, 2011.
BAGHDAD — In a city where sand clings to everything and the culture permits empty plastic water bottles to be tossed into the street, residents in the prosperous Zayuna neighborhood make sure their lawns stay green and their fruit trees are pruned.
But when Baghdad’s residents step out of their walled-in sanctuaries, they can’t escape a city that in many ways still feels ungovernable more than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion.
They see dirt and gravel streets marked by ruts and sinkholes large enough to swallow a tire. Empty lots are garbage pits, and sewage from broken pipes collects in small pools on streets amid downed cables and wires. There are a few slides at the neighborhood playground, but nearly just as many abandoned cars.
“We don’t know who is in charge,” said Alayau al-Sukuti, standing outside one of the neighborhood’s many expensive houses. “Who should provide services? Security? We don’t even try to go to [the government] anymore.”
In Baghdad, where about a quarter of all Iraqis reside, determining who is in charge is a complicated and confusing exercise that tests the patience of residents and municipal leaders still feeling their way in a democracy. The country, backed by a $400 million U.S. initiative to establish local governments, has been making steady progress in creating local bodies to provide services to residents.
But Baghdad’s quasi-federalized structure poses a unique challenge for U.S. and Iraqi officials trying to determine new boundaries for the city and where a mayor’s power starts and a governor’s ends, according to U.S. government reports.
“The problem is, nobody knows who is responsible,” said Mahmoud Othman, a member of parliament who sits on the governance committee.
Questions about command and control have hung over Baghdad since the initial days of the war, when U.S. forces were ill-equipped to contain widespread looting after the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Although security has improved in recent years, the task of overseeing the estimated 250,000 police and army officials who guard the city has created management issues, including gaps in intelligence sharing and a lack of organizational clarity. For instance, frustrated local officials say they do not know whom to contact about suspicious vehicles. Meanwhile, Baghdad’s municipal government continues to sputter as different entities jockey for control over reconstruction dollars and grapple over whether American-style local governments can work in the Middle East.
“Baghdad lives in chaos, chaos, chaos,” said Jawad al-Hasnawi, a parliament member.
In the coming weeks, the parliament is set to consider Baghdad’s “capital law,” which is designed to clarify who controls the city. But in a country with about 20 major political blocs, an increasingly restless electorate and a parliament often consumed with infighting, few lawmakers expect a quick resolution.
“Everyone is accusing the others, and nobody is trusting the others,” said Mayor Saber al-Issawi. “That kind of confuses our work.”
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