Amid Deprivation, Emir’s Palace Is Gleaming Again : Kuwait: Efforts to rebuild the plush quarters are defended, even as city struggles to restore basic services.

In this war-ravaged city with no running water or electricity and growing desperation and despair, Bader Qabandi already has worked wonders.

Laboring 16 hours a day, the 47-year-old Kuwaiti engineer and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have supervised the sumptuous restoration of apartments in the Bayan Palace, the new home and offices of Kuwait’s emir and crown prince.

Four hundred workers have installed hundreds of gold-plated French bathroom fixtures and doorknobs. Italian marble floors and Moroccan tiles have been cleaned and repaired. Silk brocade has been hung on the walls. Water runs hot and cold.

Mahogany tables have been shined, plush carpets cleaned, silk pillows arranged on brand-new sitting room sofas. Unopened boxes hold water coolers, refrigerators and stoves. Two men work overtime sewing curtains.

“But we have a problem,” Qabandi said Monday. “We can’t find enough bulbs for the chandeliers. And every room has one. Too much!”

Others agree but only because of the obvious contrast between the opulence of the emir’s new palace and the growing frustration and hardship of Kuwait’s long-suffering citizens three weeks after their liberation from Iraqi occupation.

Government officials now say that restoring the country’s badly damaged electricity and water systems will take three more weeks. Only a handful of shops have opened, forcing most people to line up for hours for government rations and water.

Even the Fire Department is hurting. The worst fire since liberation burned out of control for hours Sunday at the deserted Rashid Souk, the main shopping complex downtown.

Firemen could spray only 6,000 gallons of water. Then their hoses ran dry. Fifteen firefighters in red jumpsuits watched morosely as the fire spread from shop to shop until it burned itself out.

“We can do nothing,” said Jassim Mansouri, 42, deputy director of the Kuwait Fire Department. “No equipment. No water. First time a fireman can watch a fire and do nothing.”

He said that Kuwait has only six fire trucks left of the 350 it had before Iraq’s invasion Aug. 2. None have been replaced. And no pumps have been installed to draw seawater.

Firemen must compete with thirsty citizens for water from tanker trucks. At one point Monday, according to a witness, an angry Kuwaiti lay in the dust in front of a fire truck that tried to cut into the long water line, crying, “Go ahead, run over me!”

Western relief officials say they are astonished at the slow progress in restoring even the most basic of services.

“I have a feeling that for at least a week, there has been no progress,” said Walter Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation here. “It’s like a cloud overhead. Kuwait is liberated and that’s it. There’s nothing else. There’s not one government ministry functioning. Nothing!”

An American official with extensive experience in Third World disasters, including war, says he cannot understand the delays in what was once one of the world’s richest countries.

“African countries in the 2nd Century BC (got) back on their feet faster than this,” he said. “Three weeks and the markets aren’t open. No water. No electricity. This is the slowest response I’ve ever seen. There’s a feeling of desperation. People are expecting things to get better and they’re getting worse.”

Government officials say that damage to three power plants and transmission lines was far more severe than initially believed, and water-pumping stations cannot operate until the power is turned on.

In a move to ease tension and dampen criticism, the government has announced that a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew imposed March 5 will be lifted during the monthlong observation of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest season, which began Sunday.

During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and then traditionally feast and visit each other at night.

Much of the criticism has focused on the emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, who stayed in Saudi Arabia until last Thursday. He returned to a lackluster reception and has not been seen publicly since.

But Qabandi, the emir’s engineer, was visible from the start. He led eight 40-foot-long tractor-trailers filled with furnishings into Kuwait on March 4, days before the first emergency food and water convoys arrived.

“We were the first to come,” he said proudly.

Because the emir’s traditional home, the 200-year-old Dasman Palace, was destroyed by the Iraqi invaders and extensive damage was done to government offices at Sief Palace, the Bayan Palace was chosen as a temporary new residence and seat of government.

Kuwait’s government gave a $1.5-million contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to manage the restoration and repairs to the palace, built 10 years ago for an international Islamic conference.

Jim Parker, spokesman for the Army Engineers here, defended the U.S. role in working on the palace.

“I think the implication is that the Army Corps of Engineers is over there repairing palaces while the rest of the country is in such bad shape,” he said. “That’s not fair. We’re not placing any more effort on what they consider their new seat of government than on all the other things we’re doing.”

The Kuwaitis have asked the corps to manage $45 million in contracts for emergency repairs to water, sewage, electrical, roads and other basic infrastructure damaged by the Iraqis.

Parker said the Bayan Palace’s elegant marble and wood-paneled apartments and offices are appropriate for a head of state and his Cabinet.

“It’s opulently appointed, I’m not going to deny that,” Parker said. “But we are managing the contract for the government of Kuwait. They set the priorities, not us.”

The palace complex has 108 apartments in all, each with a master bedroom, six smaller bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and two large reception rooms. Each apartment has nine separate bathrooms. Lighting is soft, and colors are muted pastels.

So far, 12 apartments have been restored in two buildings, partly by raiding other apartments. The emir will live and work in one building, and the crown prince, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, will live and work in the other.

Qabandi, who is in charge of buildings for the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Program, defended the push to install the emir’s gold-plated bathroom fixtures before other people even have running water.

“If the government cannot have facilities to function, what good is it?” he asked. “The emir must have a place to live and work.”

Without giving precise figures, he said each building would cost a “couple of million” dollars to fully restore. “A couple of million for a building is not much, really,” he added.