Proposed Water Line Would Provide for Iraqi Villages

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
RELEASE No. 20070501-09

13th SC(E), LSA ANACONDA PAO

LSA ADDER, Iraq – Iraqi engineers recently met with residents along the path of a proposed water pipeline between villages outside Logistical Support Area Adder and the city of Nasiriyah.

The project, which is in its early stages of planning, would provide potable water to more than 3,000 people and at least four villages, according to Capt. Jeremy Berndt of Buffalo, Minn., a civil affairs officer with 134th Brigade Support Battalion.

“It will mean an uninterrupted source of water. The villagers have been very cooperative,” he said. “This is one of the ways we can pay them back for all the things they’ve done for us.”

Residents in the villages of Al Awaya, Abu Sweech, Abdul Razag and Al Tuwamy, currently pay for trucks to bring drinking water from Nasiriyah every two or three days, Berndt said. The water does not always arrive when it is supposed to, which can be dangerous during the heat of summer, Sheik Dhia Kadhum of Abdul Razag said through a translator. The shipped water, which is only used for drinking, also costs money that could be used elsewhere, he noted. A pipeline would mean running water for villagers for the first time since 2003, Kadhum said.

“The civil affairs team works hard to help us,” he said. “We trust them.”

The group of Iraqi engineers studying the project, including a consultant for the Ur District and a surveyor for Nasiriyah, recently examined the areas where the proposed pipeline would run and discussed the problems it could face.

Berndt said as the project progresses, they plan to request for bids from local contractors.