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06 October 2003

CPA Restores Water Pumping, Sewage Treatment in Baghdad

USAID's Natsios says most Baghdad pumping stations now functioning

By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq is overseeing the installation of individual power generators in 37 Baghdad water facilities and pumping stations in order to ensure uninterrupted water supply and sewage treatment even in the event of power outages, said U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Andrew Natsios.

Natsios gave details of the water infrastructure restoration work in testimony before the House Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee September 28 and while briefing reporters in Washington October 3. He said USAID, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. heavy construction firm Bechtel, is carrying out the repair operations.

Natsios said the Iraqi power grid remains unstable due to the downing of transmission towers by criminal gangs seeking to steal the copper wire and sell it on the black market. If the water facilities are dependent on the electrical grid, power outages disable the pumps at the water and sewage stations.

"So what we are now methodically doing in the larger cities, is disconnecting the water pumping stations, the water purification stations, the sewer pumping stations, and the treatment plants from the electrical grid," Natsios said.

The USAID administrator pointed out that from a security angle this makes it much easier to protect the public utilities. "They have their own generators. And it's much easier to protect through point security, a facility than a transmission line. So even though electricity may go down for whatever reason at some point in the future, water and sewer services will continue," Natsios said.

"[W]e have helped Iraqi municipal governments repair over 1,700 pipe breaks in Baghdad's water network, increasing water flow by 200,000 cubic meters per day, [and] we have rehabilitated 70 of Baghdad's 90 non-functioning waste pumping stations," Natsios said.

Natsios also highlighted USAID's support of NGO-led water projects throughout the country. "These projects will help to reduce the incidence of water-borne disease and mortality by bringing safe drinking water to thousands of children and their families, in many cases to villages that have been forced to go without [safe] water for years," he stated.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)