Southern PHCs Scheduled for Completion by June

By Betsy Weiner
Gulf Region South District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers


Twelve primary healthcare centers (PHC), designed to provide essential medical care to people in underdeveloped urban and rural areas in the Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces, will open by June 2007, according to Gulf Region South (GRS) District officials.

Construction on 55 facilities in the nine southern provinces halted when the primary contractor, Parson’s Corp., was terminated last year, but GRS re-awarded the contracts six months ago, according to Mike Osborne, Dhi Qar resident engineer.

“The clinics were in various stages of construction when Parsons left,” he said. “Some were weeks ahead of the others.”

Lt. Col. Dale Johnson, Camp Adder area engineer, noted that the centers under his watch – eight in Muthanna and four in Dhi Qar – exist in an increasingly dangerous security environment and this makes them difficult to build.

“I’ve got two in the area that are nearly finished,” he said, “one in Muthanna and one in Dhi Qar. Both have been built by the same contractor and will be finished in the next 30 days.”

Johnson said that despite the challenges of building the facilities, he reaps personal rewards from knowing that GRS has provided the community with something that is “uniquely good. They don’t get this level of medical care or service,” he said. “Not outside of hospitals anyway.”

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(Photo: Mike Osborne, Dhi Qar resident engineer, examines the mortar on the skeletal structure of a primary healthcare center in Nasiriyah recently. Dhi Qar and Muthanna have 12 PHCs that fall under the purview of the Adder Area Office, GRS. Photo by Betsy Weiner)