Clean water for Khandari: Water treatment facility opens in Abu Ghraib

By Sgt. Dustin Roberts, 2nd HBCT PAO, 1st Inf. Div., MND-BApril 29, 2009

BAGHDAD - Abbas, the chairman of the Abu Ghraib District Council, speaks to attendees of the Khandari Water Treatment Facility Opening Ceremony in Abu Ghraib April 27. The new facility purifies close to eight million gallons of water every day and wi...
1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – BAGHDAD - Abbas, the chairman of the Abu Ghraib District Council, speaks to attendees of the Khandari Water Treatment Facility Opening Ceremony in Abu Ghraib April 27. The new facility purifies close to eight million gallons of water every day and wi... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
BAGHDAD - Lt. Col. Samuel Hayes, a native of Newport Pa., commander, 2nd Stryker Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, salutes during the playing of the Iraqi National Anthem at the opening ceremony...
2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – BAGHDAD - Lt. Col. Samuel Hayes, a native of Newport Pa., commander, 2nd Stryker Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, salutes during the playing of the Iraqi National Anthem at the opening ceremony... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
BAGHDAD -Capt. Michael Warren (center), 2nd Stryker Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, speaks at the opening ceremony of the Khandari Water Treatment Facility in Abu Ghraib April 27. Facility wor...
3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – BAGHDAD -Capt. Michael Warren (center), 2nd Stryker Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, speaks at the opening ceremony of the Khandari Water Treatment Facility in Abu Ghraib April 27. Facility wor... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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BAGHDAD - Close to one-thousand families in the Khandari area of Abu Ghraib can have clean water for everyday use.

The Khandari Water Treatment Facility opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 27 in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad.

Contracted through the local Iraqi Government and Multi-National Division-Baghdad, the facility, which took close to three months to complete, treats and purifies five-to-eight million gallons of water per-day.

"This is a culmination of the efforts of many people, to include Coalition forces and the local government," said Lt. Col. Samuel Hayes, a native of Newport, Pa., commander, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment. "We have been working with the Iraqis very hard to make sure that everybody in Abu Ghraib has clean water to use every day."

The water facility will also help about 500 additional families by preserving the water that flowed through the original pipeline prior to the construction of the facility.

"I am so glad that these families are being taken care of," said Ali Ishmael, the director of the Nasir Wa Salam Water office. "This place will be a very big help in the future, especially in the summer months."

To provide more assistance to the people, the battalion's leaders continue to work with the local government to carry out more water treatment projects, electricity projects, a market opening and school projects in the Abu Ghraib district.

Hayes said that essential service projects demand hours of planning, but the average citizen doesn't notice.

"This is a physical example of the government's desire to help the individual Iraqi," Hayes said. "When they drive by [the water treatment facility] they see this facility and when they turn their faucet on at home they have clean water and they know they can safely use it."

A concern of the local citizens in Khandari is keeping the facility secure from insurgents and special group criminals.

Hayes said the Iraqi Security Forces, who lead in securing the facility, have improved immensely at combating violence in Abu Ghraib.

"Certainly there is an ongoing concern about the security in Abu Ghraib and there is still work to be done there, but I don't think we would have been able to do this two years ago," he said. "There has been a lot of effort by Coalition forces, but more importantly, the Iraqi Security Forces have made great progress in this effort."