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In sewers of Baghdad, a surprising secret flows
It was an engineering success on the order of stringing the first cables for the Brooklyn Bridge or coaxing the first glimmer of starlight through some giant telescope to unravel the structure of the universe. But when it occurred late last month, the achievement remained cloaked in absolute secrecy, marked only by a quiet celebration among participants who may remain forever unknown to history. Raw sewage was treated in Baghdad.But enough about Saddamâs upcoming trial ... The stream of treated water that eventually found its way into the Tigris River was hardly more than a trickle, roughly 20 million gallons a day from a city that produces raw sewage at something like 10 times that rate or more. But the accomplishment is all but epoch-making in a city where the sewage plants are in such disrepair that for the last 10 to 15 years, every drop of that muck was poured untreated into the river, fouling everything from boat landings to drinking water systems downstream. Successes like this one were just what Congress envisioned when it appropriated billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, hoping the improvements would convince ordinary Iraqis of America's good will. But for what those in charge of the work, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its major contractor, Bechtel, called security reasons, the sewage breakthrough remained secret... The development agency and Bechtel said the breakthrough occurred in a dangerous part of Baghdad where any publicity could make the project a target for saboteurs. That argument, and the bizarre concept of a secret sewage project, has generated frustration among some of the engineers, who say that secrecy defeats the original purpose of the work. This is the first sewage treatment in Baghdad in 15 years but "we can't get the word out," said one U.S. government engineer on the project. To the suggestion that publicity could lead to bombings and the like, the engineer said: "Well, guess what. We're getting bombed anyway." Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-20 |
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