Sadr City, Iraq - In what is considered to be the largest reconstruction effort the United States has undertaken since the Marshall Plan following World War II, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division has completed thousands of reconstruction projects in Iraq including construction of roads, schools, military facilities and oil production infrastructure. The most essential of these projects are those that provide the basic amenities to the Iraqi people to include water and electricity.
According to the State Department, only 12.9 million Iraqi people, (less than half of the estimated 28 million population), had access to a safe and stable water supply. In the early post-war period the number of Iraqis with access to potable water dropped to only 5.5 million. Thanks to the reconstructions efforts in the area of water reclamation, as of July 30, 2009, the State Department estimates that more than 21.2 million Iraqis currently have access to potable water.
One such critical problem area, identified early on in the reconstruction efforts, was the lack of adequate drinking water in Sadr City.
Sadr City, located near Baghdad, is home to over two million Iraqis. The city was built by Saddam Hussein as a massive urban community to house the thousands of rural Iraqis migrating to the Baghdad in search of jobs. The city had seen decades of neglect under Saddam's regime in even the most basis areas including adequate potable water.
Although the city received its water from two existing water treatment facilities, the total potable water provided residents amounted to less than 46 liters (12 gallons) per capita per day. As a comparison, the average American uses 161 gallons per-day.
"The new plant location came as a result of a government study on water pressure and supply," according to USACE water expert, Simeon Francis. Francis, the former technical expert on the water plant project said, "There was simply not enough water to Sadr City from the Kharkh and Shark-Dihjilih Water Treatment Plants. It was then determined that a new water treatment plant was needed near Sadr City."
The Sadr City R3 Water Treatment Plant was intended to increase the quantity and quality of potable water to Sadr City and the surrounding area of Baghdad. The new facility ties into the existing raw water supply piping and included the construction of a water treatment system, water storage facility, a pumping station to pump treated water from storage to the existing distribution system and ancillary facilities such as an administration building, laboratory and an emergency power system. According to project engineers, the modern water treatment process incorporated in the plant is designed with a filtering system that far exceeds the World Health Organization standards.
Completed just over a year ago, the $65 million water treatment plant is designed to treat and purify water from the nearby Tigris River and provide Sadr City residents with potable water. The goal of the water treatment project is to provide hook-ups to residences in 68 of the 79 city sectors.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources, the water treatment plant is currently producing between 3,200 and 4,000 cubic meters of potable water per hour, which equates to 25 million gallons of water a-day. At full capacity the plant can produce over 6,000 cubic meters of water per-hour.
Col. Dan Anninos, commander of the Gulf Region District and charged with completing the Sadr water treatment project, calls the facility a major success for U.S. reconstruction efforts and the residents of Sadr City.
"The Sadr City Water Treatment Plant is a vital community asset that supplies quality drinking water to over 500,000 residents and increases the estimated 46 liters of water per-capita per-day to approximately 200 [liters]," said Anninos. "This is a project we can all be proud of knowing that it was built by the hands, hearts and minds of our employees for the citizens of Sadr City. The facility today is well maintained and it is being utilized as it was intended. This plant has the capacity to service thousands more citizens and I am confident over time it will."
Sustainability was also factored in the construction of the water treatment plant. Under the terms of the agreement, the contractor is to provide training on the operations and maintenance of the facility, provide the consumables for running the plant and provide options for future plant expansion. The plant employs over 140 local Iraqis for the operations, maintenance and administration of the facility.
Since 2003, the United States has appropriated more than $50 billion for reconstruction projects in Iraq. Compared to the Marshall Plan, the United States contributed about $13 billion which experts' state would be nearly approximately $100 billion in today's dollars.
The Corps of Engineers has played a major role Iraq's reconstruction. Since the 2004 inception of the Corps' Gulf Region Division based in Baghdad, more than 5,300 reconstruction projects, at a construction cost of $9.1 billion have been completed and 500 projects are ongoing or planned.
"In 2009 alone, the Corps completed 325 projects valued at nearly $1 billion," said Maj. Gen. Michael Eyre, Commander of the Gulf Region Division.
"Some of the projects completed were: 41 school projects, 20 village road projects, 25 water distribution projects, 21 electric distribution projects, 12 police stations, 7 court projects and 2 military command centers," said Eyre.
"These projects are providing electricity, clean water, transportation, police and fire stations, medical care and educational opportunities to the people of Iraq-things many of us take for granted."
The goal according Anninos is to empower the Iraqi engineers.
"We can all be proud of this work and the thousands of other reconstruction work the Gulf Region District has completed over the years. We have put Iraqis to work, we have assisted in coaching and training and mentoring this nation's many engineers so that they can take control and re-build their nation, one brick at a time while all along greatly improving the quality of life of the Iraqi citizens," Anninos said.
In the public works and water sector, since 2004, the Corps of Engineers has completed nearly 800 projects generating around 1 million cubic meters per day of safe, potable from Corps projects alone. These projects have provided water and sewage to millions of Iraqi citizens-many of whom did not even have these services prior to the war.
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For high resolution photos: www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/index.asp
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