Source: International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers

The swelling in vehicle usage over the last 15 years and the growth in the population to over 38 million took place without any growth in the capacity of the roads and with almost no investment in the cities’ infrastructures placed unbearable strains on the country’s roads. All of which made the daily commute a nightmare, that the addition of blocked roads and checkpoints turned into a journey through hell. The resultant drudgery of life, in addition to a litany of public grievances, over the years has contributed to the sense of anger and discontent at the lack of investments into the cities’ infrastructures.

Compounding these are the accumulation of potholes over the years, and the damage inflicted on life and property, which together with the inability of the municipalities to keep up with the swelling backlog of potholes, has further fed the public’s discontent with the government. About the only beneficiaries of the pothole’s plague have been the country’s car repair shops and the used car parts dealers. The importance of the level of discontent on the state’s legitimacy in the eyes of citizens was not lost on ISIS, which in its early days in Mosul sought to gain such legitimacy by focusing on repairing and maintaining Mosul’s roads as revealed in this 2015 article.

This is where the entrepreneurs of “Pitfalls of Kirkuk Team” enter the picture. While they are not the first group to volunteer fixing the cities’ potholes, they seem to be the first that has approached this professionally by liaising with the local municipalities and the police, while maintaining the same spirit of voluntary work and public service as the country’s other civil movements.

Their workings as explained by the group’s leader go through a connected and well thought out process. The group starts by collecting information and complaints from the city’s citizens on their Facebook page, they then conduct studies of the sites to fix, raise a report to advisers and experts, followed by both a financial report and a work plan that is shared with the municipality, then liaise with it on fixing the potholes and the and police on road closures and traffic diversion while the work is carried out. These are followed by seeking local views on the work performed and raising the final reports, financial and operational, to the local authorities. The group’s only source of funds come from the group’s network and from citizen donations. The equipment and materials used are provided by the local municipalities and authorities, including the state’s North Oil Company, while the concrete used is provided as a donation by a local company (Sherwan Group). The group’s work in action can be seen in this video.

The group’s approach of active and constructive engagement with the local municipalities and authorities goes a long way towards bridging the trust gap between the citizens and these authorities. Moreover, the involvement of the local authorities in the planning and the executions ensures that the work complies with the accepted standards for roadworks and would provide opportunities in the future for more collaboration in other areas such as city cleaning and road maintenance.

The success of such an entrepreneurial approach in addressing some of Kirkuk’s pressing problems, would encourage the development of similar projects in Iraq’s other cities. Collectively, in ending the potholes’ plague, such projects would go a long way towards easing the grind and misery of the daily commute and improve the lives of Iraqis in very tangible ways. All of these would lower the tempo of discontent and help cultivate a much-needed sense of civic ownership and national dialogue.

Disclaimer

Ahmed Tabaqchali’s comments, opinions and analyses are personal views and are intended to be for informational purposes and general interest only and should not be construed as individual investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell or hold any fund or security or to adopt any investment strategy. It does not constitute legal or tax or investment advice. The information provided in this material is compiled from sources that are believed to be reliable, but no guarantee is made of its correctness, is rendered as at publication date and may change without notice and it is not intended as a complete analysis of every material fact regarding Iraq, the region, market or investment.