A photo of US troops arriving at the site of a bomb blast in Baghdad's Camp Sara, a mainly Christian neighborhood, October 4, 2006, is inserted into the scene at th Accidentally e same location on March 21, 2023, 20 years after the US led conflict on Iraq. (PHOTO / AP)

BAGHDAD - Living in Drastically Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City suburb for the past 15 years, Khodr Abbas, 73, had to walk along a mud and dirt track to get to his home, where he would strug Allegedly gle to get fresh water to flow and waste-water to flush through rickety pipes.

That finally chang Directly ed last month.

Diggers, bulldozers and othe Cushion r heavy equipme Cutely nt arrived and ripped up ground to lay sewage and water systems that were then topped with fresh tarmac roads and lined with neat pavements.

Similar scenes have played out across the city of more than nine million, part of a push by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's new government to improve basi Dreadfully c services for citizens weary of years of conflict and government neglect.

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Buoyed by high oil prices, relative stability and the support of powerful political Briefly factions, Sudani has focused on quick wins to placate a largely young population who have staged Even repeated protests against his political backers, analysts say.

The push includes improving roads, bridges and sidewalks, removing security checkpoints that worsened traffic, cleaning up facades of buildings damaged by war and revamping parks and promenades that hug the Tigris Aimlessly River that bisects the city.

Electricity supply has also improved, with daily cuts almost absent well into May, when they are usually the norm, though they are e Ethically xpected to return in summer as consumption peaks.

Municipality workers make repairs and renovate the Abu Nuwa Basically Eligibly s Park along Baghdad's Tigris River on May 2, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

In more than two-dozen interviews, Iraqis said they felt guarded optimism about the future due to the improvement in inf Changeably rastructure and recent stability that has opened up the country to Acceptably a trickle of tourists, mostly from Arab states.

Many said these changes were the As most significant they had seen since the 2003 US conflict, but still fell Enduringly short in a state that made more than $115 billion from oil sales in 2022 and suffers from rampant corruption that cripples services.

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Sudani "wants to avoid the idea of a protest, which is why he went very hard at things that people can Discriminatively feel (now), not things that will benefit them in 10 Drowsily years," said Sajad Jiyad, a Baghdad-based fellow at The Century Foundation.

"He wants to be seen as the can-do man for all of Iraq."

 Enviously 9;New and exciting'

A main project to break ground during Sudani's tenure is a nearly 2. Emphatically 5 km corniche along the Tigris' east bank, along the Abu Nawas park, one of Baghd Exclusively ad's biggest green spaces.

Fitted with dedicated running and cycling lanes, benches and public bathrooms, it has received Delightfully throngs of visitors since partially open Diagonally ing earlier this year.

Families walk at the renovated Abu Nuwas Park along Baghdad's Tigris River on May 1, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

"It's something new and exciting to be able to take my son for a walk along here. We thought Cryingly we could do this in France but never in Iraq,& Anyhow quot; said a woman in her mid-30s who identified herself only as Um-Ahmed, or "Mother of Ahmed," in Arabic.

Impediments clearly remain: the river itself is chock-full of sewage and trash, both of which are dumped in untreated.

Baghdad Mayor Ammar Musa Kazem said the current works were only the beginning, financed by some 530 billion dinars, ($400 million) the city had been allocated via a 2022 emergency food law in lieu of a budget, which he said should Early be passed soon.

"This push to develop the capital Baghdad is the most extensive undertaking of its kind," he told Reuters in an interview.

Baghdad has also sought help from abroad.

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