Other Ways of Measuring Success in Iraq

Progress in Iraq is being measured in ways more than just an increasing enemy bodycount, it is also measured by counting building projects that improve the country for its residents such as this news that Iraqis with assistance from the US Army Corp of Engineers are constructing Fallujah’s first-ever sewage system:

About 450 Iraqis are currently working to get Fallujah’s first-ever sewer system operational by next summer.

That number is expected to soon grow to a construction force of 700 Iraqis.

The $85 million project includes a collection system, trunk mains, pump stations and a wastewater treatment plant processing 40,000 cubic meters daily (10.5 million gallons).

“People are happy because our community is safer now and there are more American projects creating jobs in different areas,” said Construction Manager Awaf Abdul Rahim at the wastewater treatment plant. “It’s helped Fallujah’s unemployment. When the security situation improved earlier this year, we were inspired to work hard. Our construction crews became more serious and active and are now getting more done.”

Peter Collins, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is the project manager overseeing the work. “The long term benefit is huge. At the moment Fallujah’s raw sewage is flowing into the Euphrates River, polluting it, impacting communities downstream who depend on it as a drinking source,” Collins said.

Apart from the Iraqi work force, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has 35 Iraqi engineers visiting the various project sites daily, checking on the quality of the ongoing construction and encouraging worker safety.

Collins says the new treatment plant will have the capacity to serve Fallujah’s needs until 2025, even if the community has a 50 percent growth in population (from 200,000 to 300,000 residents).

“People in Fallujah may not fully appreciate the impact of this project because they have never lived in a sewage-free city. Next year there will be no wastewater flowing in the streets and their children will be able to play safely outside,” Collins said. “It represents a monumental step forward and that’s what motivates us as we work to achieve that goal.”

Fallujah's first ever sewage system...and yet there are those among us that still cling to the fabrication that Iraqi's were better off under Saddam's rule. Complex infrastructure that we take for granted in this country never existed before today for many Iraqi's, tell me again how they were better off?