16 August 2005
Iraq Rebuilding Projects Continue to Progress
Defense Department Report: Iraq Reconstruction Update
Despite reports of casualties, kidnappings and explosions continually permeating the news about Iraq, much necessary work is being accomplished in the country by Iraqis with U.S. and coalition forces.
For example, about 18,000 Iraqi schoolchildren will attend freshly refurbished schools this autumn. Forty-three schools in the northern and southern provinces have received funds for renovation and repair; contracts have been awarded to do the work. More than $1.3 million within the Iraq Relief Reconstruction Fund has been budgeted to continue a nationwide school repair program to rehabilitate sanitary facilities, electrical and mechanical systems, and make structural repairs to schools in Karbala, Dahuk, Najaf, Basrah and Qadisiyah.
Also, during an operation August 5 in western Mosul, more than 200 Iraqi children received medical screenings from coalition forces, with support from Iraqi police. Soldiers and medics handed out soccer balls and hygiene products to the local children while conducting the screenings. More than 1,000 children have received medical screenings during this and four similar operations since the middle of July.
On August 9, the International Press Center in Baghdad was given to Iraq's Communications Directorate in a ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Concurrent with the transfer, the U.S. Agency for International Development program in Iraq provided a grant to the press center for technical and office equipment, including:
• 20 desktop computers;
• 30 laptop computers;
• licensed software;
• printers;
• a scanner;
• a photocopier machine;
• compact disc writers; and
• desks, chairs and other necessary office equipment.
On August 14, a group of Iraqi journalists who have used the press center since its opening in February 2004 received the 30 laptop computers.
Iraqi workers in Baghdad have just finished the $3.6 million Al Amari Water Distribution project. The facility will produce about 250 cubic meters of clean water daily, enough for the use of about 2,000 families.
Construction has begun on a $4.3 million police facility in the Samarra District of Salah Ad Din Province. It will accommodate 250 officers in the northeast part of Samarra, and will provide a police presence in the city to help ensure law and order. The project is scheduled to be completed in November.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq estimates that the $8.2 million project to refurbish and renovate the Najaf Maternity Hospital will be finished by December 25. Engineers report that the project, which began October 25, 2004, is 30 percent complete.
The renovations include:
• a new sewage system;
• a new boiler for heating water;
• a new incineration system;
• ceramic tiles throughout all of the renovated portions of the facility; and
• a new residents' office.
A reverse-osmosis water treatment plant is already finished and ready to be turned over to the hospital.
The 266-bed maternity hospital continues patient care even while renovations go forward. Doctors there see 250 pediatric and 125 maternity outpatients daily. The maternity facility also takes overflow female patients and males younger than 14 from the Najaf Teaching Hospital, located two kilometers from the maternity hospital.
Similar renovations are also under way at the teaching hospital.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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