Sanctions broke down Iraqi public services, leaving garbage everywhere

Evidence

In July 1996, Lina left for Iraq with her mother and younger sister. They first flew to Jordan. From the airport in Amman, they took a taxi to the bus station, where they boarded a bus for Ramadi. It was a long ride across a dusty border to the capital of al-Anbar province. Long before they reached the border, Maisa carefully lectured her daughters never, ever to say anything about politics or against Saddam in Iraq. Finally, after two days of travel, the three women landed at Lina’s aunt’s house, and Lina saw the large and beautiful villa, with its marble floors and infinite bedrooms. But right outside the grounds, she saw an Iraq that looked like a massive landfill. Garbage was everywhere, part of the breakdown of social services that accompanied the sanctions. For the known future, this Iraq, Iraq under sanctions, would be Lina’s world. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 582

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did sanctions specifically cause garbage collection to collapse? What other daily services broke down?
• XREF: connects to: US sanctions on 1990s Iraq killed over a million Iraqis — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 197