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From Water and Wastewater.com Industry News
For more information on USAID’s programs in Iraq please see: www.usaid.gov/iraq Program Overview USAID assists Iraqis in reconstructing their country by working within the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). USAID programs are implemented in coordination with the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Coalition country partners, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector partners. The USAID Mission in Iraq carries out programs in education, health care, food security, infrastructure reconstruction, airport and seaport management, economic growth, community development, local governance, and transition initiatives. Water and Sanitation Accomplishments to Date: • Rehabilitating sewage and water treatment plants that currently by-pass untreated sewage generated by millions of people into the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. o Repairing and rehabilitating water systems throughout Iraq. o Repaired hundreds of breaks in Iraq’s critical and long neglected water network, significantly increasing water flow. Highlights this Week: • Under USAID’s Infrastructure Reconstruction contract, Iraqi subcontractors are continuing to expand Baghdad’s Shark Diljah water treatment plant. Work at the plant will increase potable water flow to east Baghdad by 45 percent, benefiting 2.5 million people. The expansion will add 200 million liters per day to the water supply. Construction is underway on the foundation of the chlorine building and the alum building is being plastered and painted. The chlorine and alum buildings store the chemicals and machinery used to pump them into the water for treatment. Chlorine is a chemical that kills bacteria in water; alum is a settling agent that is used to remove turbidity in water. • A US NGO is partnering with USAID to rehabilitate 87 compact water treatment units in rural areas of Diyala, Babil, Thi Qar, Karbala, Wassit and Muthanna Governorates. The units vary in water production capacity from 15m3 to 50m3/hour and can potentially provide sufficient clean water to meet the daily needs of 200,000 persons. The project is about 75 percent complete. Selection of the units was based on site assessments and consultations with the governorates’ various water directorates. The NGO is ensuring the sustainability of the project by providing training workshops on maintenance and operations to staff that have been selected by the water directorate and the community. The project began 10 months ago and currently all but one compact unit is functioning properly. The project includes hygiene and basic health education campaigns primarily targeting women and children and focusing on the prevention of water borne disease transmission. To date, the entire program has reached 224,000 persons. • A US NGO is partnering with USAID to provide clean water to a village of 300 recent internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Al Qadisiyah Governorate through temporary tankering and the construction of a 1.5 km water network connecting the village to a nearby water treatment plant. The NGO will also carry out emergency repairs to the plant and training for its operators and technicians. Community-based hygiene education will also be provided to the villagers. The villagers were displaced after the recent conflict by Kurds returning to reclaim their homes and lands which had been given to Arabs during the former regime. These IDPs of Arabic ethnicity now live in small houses which they constructed of brick and mud. The settlement is considered permanent as the chances of their return is remote. Currently there is no potable water source accessible to the village residents, and water is taken from an irrigation canal, which puts the health of the population at risk. Diarrheal diseases, many of which are caused by water-borne illnesses, are the primary health risk for children under the age of five in Iraq. The villagers are also susceptible to hygiene related illnesses as they lack access to clean water for washing, cooking and cleaning. Under this newly approved project, the NGO will immediately begin tankering water to the villagers. As this is considered a temporary measure, the NGO will mobilize the residents to collect water directly from the tankers for the eight week time period needed to complete the repairs to the plant and to install the connecting water network. • At the wastewater treatment plant in An Najaf, civil work is complete and crews have begun to load 8,000 cubic meters of biofilter media into the clarifying tanks. Biofilter media are small plastic perforated spheres that reduce the organic content of wastewater. Crews have completed rebuilding the digester gas compressors that compact the raw sewage for storage and for faster decomposition and have finalized dredging of the temporary sedimentation lagoon and returned it to continuous operation. The mechanical and electrical subcontract is now approximately 58 percent complete. Under this project, full sewage processing and treatment capabilities will be restored to 141,000 people in An Najaf by December 2004. • The Najaf water treatment plant, called Al Zarga plant, is located in central Iraq and is being rehabilitated by USAID. It will benefit all of An Najaf city’s 563,000 residents when it is completed in August 2004. Civil work has already been completed. Major work now includes repairing the filter beds, pumping systems and the sedimentation tank system. Thirty seven of forty filter beds have been completed and returned to full service. The Iraqi subcontractor is also installing a new chlorination system and is removing the existing sludge pumps for refurbishment. See complete report at: http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/updates/aug04/iraq_fs44_081104.pdf Source: USAID, http://www.usaid.gov/ © Copyright 1998 - 2011 Water and Wastewater.com |
