Desperate Iraqis turn to 'creative recycling' as they strip military and oilfield buildings

Lt-Col Alistaire Deas put his hands on his hips and surveyed the carnage around him, "Well, it is not vandalism per se," he said, with just a hint of disapproval. "It is more like creative recycling."

But call it what you like, this huge oil and gas facility on the outskirts of Basra has been well and truly trashed. Shattered glass lies everywhere and thick pools of stagnant oil blacken the sand.

This advanced and highly modern plant was intact only two days ago. It survived the war unscathed. Local farmers are the ones who began the process of levelling it.

Surrounding the huge storage tanks and electricity pylons is a landscape of small farms and rural poverty. In the mindset of southern Iraq, there is no need for oil. There is a need for glass, electric wire and light fittings. So they have taken them. The doors of the plant have been taken off their hinges. The windows have been staved in. Taps have been smashed and precious water drips into the ground. Every single light has been stolen. Soon the roofs will go too.

It is deeply ironic. George Bush and Tony Blair have made much of the aim of securing Iraq's oilfields for the benefit of the Iraqi people. But no one thinks that they meant the Iraqis to chop up the oil pipes and use them as rafters.

The raids are posing a problem for British troops. As the areas behind the front lines return to a semblance of normality, a looting spree has begun.

All over southern Iraq, former military or government buildings that have survived the war are being reduced to scrap. There is little to stop the looters. The British simply do not have the manpower to guard every valuable resource from the people who live around it.

The trashed oil facility might be an exception so far. It is not yet completely destroyed. The huge generators and most of the German electrics are still in place. "It will be a disaster, if they destroy this. We need to put people on this base and make sure it doesn't happen," Lt-Col Deas said.

Local farmers say the men who worked at the complex were bused in from Basra. They themselves never benefited from the jobs or the development oil was supposed to bring Iraq.

Badar al-Romaith, who, of course, says he has taken nothing, does know what happens to a lot of the material. "The people take it and go to the market in Zubayr," he said. "There they can sell it and get some dinars to buy some sugar, or some meat."

Buildings associated with the military have suffered the most. Not far from Mr Romaith's farm lies a military base, abandoned by its troops. It was never attacked by British or American forces but has been almost levelled by looters.

The bricks of the walls and metal of the roofs that attract all the interest. Perhaps that is a good sign to emerge from the orgy of destruction. Ordinary Iraqis have had too much of weapons. Now they want things with which to build their homes. It might be stretching things to call what is happening turning swords into ploughshares, but it is on the right road.

This is a pooled dispatch from a reporter on 'The Observer'