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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Good News from Iraq: 20 Jan 2008

From MNF-I, USACE Bringing Clean Water to Qadisiyah Province’s Al Badeer District.

AL BADEER — A water treatment facility being constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bring clean water to thousands of people in the Al Badeer District of Qadisiyah Province.

The facility, a 50 cubic meter per hour water compact unit with a distribution network pipeline of six kilometers, is being built at a cost of $341,000, according to USACE Resident Engineer Su-Chen Chen.

She said the area has not had clean water since 1972 when a well constructed in 1967 ceased to function due to lack of maintenance.

The Abo Hussein water compact unit will provide clean water to an estimated 3,000 persons, a USACE project manager said.

Money for the facility comes from the Economic Support Fund, which is used for physical and tangible public welfare facilities and public infrastructure reconstruction projects.

Under a Local Economic Promotion Plan including the contract, about 20 percent of the project's cost will be recycled to the local economy by using local workers, subcontractors and suppliers, said Chen, who is the resident engineer at USACE's Qadisiyah Resident Office.

She said the contractor is a local resident and that about 30 unskilled workers are employed at the project.

The Qadisiyah Resident Office is part of the Forat Area Office of the Corps' Gulf Region South district. The district provides construction and reconstruction services in the nine southern provinces of Iraq. The district at last count has completed more than 1,360 projects worth over $2.68 billion in the last four years.

The plant is nearly half finished and is projected to be completed by mid-April. About 20 water compact units are under construction or in the project development stage in the GRS area of responsibility, a USACE program manager said.