Clean water to come soon to Fallujah (17/01/05)

The Iraqi Ministry of Water and the US Army Corps of Engineers have combined forces to bring sanitary drinking water to the people of Fallujah. Currently assessments are being performed at four water purification treatment plants and three water towers.

The Corps of Engineers is working with the Fallujah Reconstruction Cell, as well as an Iraq Ministry representative to execute $10.3 million worth of water projects. These projects are targeted at rehabilitating and updating the system that provides drinking water for up to 400,000 residents in the city of Fallujah.

Projects aim to update water systems

Prior to recent military operations that scoured the city of insurgents, water was drawn from the Euphrates River for the residents. According to Major William Burruss, 1 RCT Resident Office, Camp Fallujah, water in Fallujah was processed though several treatment plants along the Euphrates, and then pumped to water towers.

Due to illegal water taps and other problems, the system could not maintain sufficient pressure, which the new projects are aimed at correcting.

The projects under consideration will add capacity to the existing plants, add storage capacity, increase pressure, and connect the proposed new water towers.

The old system's pressure was too low at the homes for water to enter, so each home pumped water from the distribution system into cisterns on their roofs. The new system will treat the water at the plants and then pump it to water towers for storage, and eventually distribute it into the homes.

"In the mean time, the Fallujah Water Department will have to pressurize sections of the water system, look for leaks, repair them, and move on to the next section of line," Major Burruss said. Once the leaks in the system are repaired, the system will be capable of holding more pressure and the water can be distributed farther out to surrounding communities.

Source: Reuters