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V CORPS ENGINEERS END IRAQI COMMUNITY'S 33-YEAR WAIT FOR DRINKING WATER PIPELINE

V Corps Release

Release Date: 10/21/2003

By Spc. John S. Wollaston 1st Armored Division 3rd Brigade Public Affairs Office

SHAMLYT, Iraq -- Thirty-three years. That's how long the farmers of Shamlyt, a small community three miles northwest of Baghdad have waited to get drinking water in their homes.

And now, thanks to the efforts of the 70th Engineer Battalion of V Corps's 1st Armored Division's, the farmers' wait is over.

"We first asked the Iraqi government to provide us with drinking water in 1970," said one village resident. "And we waited and we waited. Four years ago, they told us they were going to build the pipeline. Then two years ago they told us that another district in Baghdad was going to get the pipeline and we would have to wait yet again. Now thanks to (the U.S. Army) we are finally going to get our water."

During those 33 years the residents of Shamlyt drove daily into Baghdad to get potable water.

While the farmers have always had plenty of water for their fields, the water flowing through the cisterns and irrigation canals was anything but drinkable. "The water you see flowing over there," said Lt. Col. Anthony Wright, the 70th's commander, pointing to an irrigation canal, "is just fine for the crops, but you sure wouldn't want to fill your glass with it."

To get the pipe to run water from the city to the small farming community, the engineers had to look no further than the streets of Baghdad's Kadhymiya district.

"We had all of this pipe just laying around over there," Wright said. "It wasn't being taken care of, and it was being stolen. We bundled it up and we'll use it to run the water four kilometers from the city out to the farmers."

The manpower and equipment for the pipeline project comes from Iraqi contractors and laborers. The combat engineers are providing technical assistance and a lot of the pipe. Enough pipeline was collected to run a water line to each house here.

In keeping with their traditions and customs, the farmers sacrificed a sheep prior to the start of the digging.

With, the sheep's blood soaking into the dirt where the digging was to begin, Wright stepped over the animal to the applause of the farmers.

"According to their tradition," Wright said, "it's supposed to bring good luck."