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Progress in Iraq (Clean Water In Sadr City)
I am very happy for the 2 million people of Sadr City. I have been working here at the R-3 Water Treatment Plant for more than three years, since the start of the project. Its the first in Iraq, fully automatic and with American standards of best quality. We meet the people in the streets of Sadr City and they are very happy. They feel that we are interested in them and their health. We are very proud of the success of this project, said Iraqi Engineer Aqeel Lami of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.The $27 million Sadr City R-3 Water Treatment Plant construction originally began in 2005 as a USAID contract. It was handed over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division in July 2007 to finish the remaining 15 percent. The plant location came as a result of a government study on water pressure and supply, said USACE water expert, Simeon Francis, who has been with the plant as a technical expert from its beginning with USAID. The plant began operation in mid-June with some interruptions due to power restrictions, but today, R-3 produces 4,000 cubic meters of treated water per hour into the distribution system through a 1.2 meter outlet line. It is currently providing 27 sectors in Sadr City with clean potable water - sectors that historically have had no centrally distributed water. With the plant at full capacity as of September 27, 2008, a performance test in October confirmed the quality of the daily output of 96,000 cubic meters per day (about 25 million gallons per day). That output equates to clean, quality water for a total of 1.5 million people in Sadr City and Baghdad, Francis said. The plant will employ 150 people for operations, maintenance and management, Belew explained. This project is special to me, concluded Francis, because Ive been here from the beginning, and I am here for the end of it. It is really something to see the clear water sample from R-3s output. I know what the raw water is like from the Tigris and to be able to look at the R-3 water and see nothing but water is very gratifying, he concluded. But can we keep the sub-humans from blowing it up, and can/will the Iraqis be able to keep it operating? This kind of WoT Operation can have as much long-term impact as combat (though you have to win the combat to do this.) Posted by: Glenmore 2008-12-04 |
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