Rusafa district area leaders gave power to Rusafa citizens when they conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony, turning on micro-power generators in Muhalla 125 of eastern Baghdad July 24.

Iraqi Brig. Gen. Latif Mohammed, Rusafa district police commander and Abass Hassan Hamud, a neighborhood council chairman for Muhalla 125, were two of the dignitaries present to help bring readily available electricity to area residents.

“We defeated all the criminals around us, and now we are progressing,” Mohammed said. “Criminals are behind us, and we have to do something in favor of our neighborhoods.”

Mohammed said the micro-generators are proof of what he claimed about defeating criminals and improving life in the area, and construction projects are on the agenda in Rusafa as well.

Iraqi officials selected Muhalla 125 to receive the two generators, along with a third generator at another location, to serve the people in the neighborhood.

“This is a good start,” said Mohammed. “We are doing further things for the people of this muhalla.”

Hamud thanked everyone responsible for helping bring electricity to Muhalla 125, including Coalition forces. This is a very special moment for us here,” declared Hamud. “These generators will help … 1,000 families.”

Hamud said Muhalla 125 residents used to rely only on the main grid for power, which sometimes would only provide power for two or three hours. The generators will allow for electricity on a more continuous basis.

Maj. John Schulz, a civil affairs officer with the 418th Civil Affairs Detachment, said the project to bring micro-generators to Muhalla 125 residents began in May unit representatives asked Rusafa officials who most needed electricity. They selected Muhalla 125, Schulz said.

Schulz said the project could serve as a model for everyone else in the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light) who works with similar interests to follow.

There are 300 residences already hooked up to the generators, said Schultz. Other area residents may be added, but in the meantime businesses in Muhalla 125 may be hooked up to the generators, too.

The last project to bring electricity to Muhalla 125 in a major way occurred in 1963, said Schultz. Since then, the muhalla has been ignored for the most part, primarily because of its old buildings and narrow streets, which make it difficult to access the area with equipment necessary to do the job.

Hamud said the next improvement Hamud will push for in the area is a long-term sewage solution.

“It’s a very big impact on people to have electricity,” said Hamud. “I would like to thank the Coalition, the American side. It’s a great thing giving use this service.”

MNF-I

Multi-National Division – Baghdad engineers with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, journeyed to the Grand Canal Bridge in Taji Qada, northwest of Baghdad July 22, to monitor repair progress.

The bridge, which spans a portion of the Grand Canal, is one of the key crossings along the main highway west of the Tigris River. It was damaged by two attacks last year.

The first attack happened May 11, 2007, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated in the middle of the southbound lane, leaving a massive hole in the lane. The second attack occurred Aug. 14, 2007. Another VBIED was detonated in the northbound lane, sending a large span of the bridge plummeting into the water below.

Although temporary fixes were made, the damage caused other side effects such as increased traffic and severe corrosion to the river banks.

A local Iraqi construction company was contracted by the Government of Iraq to rebuild both lanes of the bridge and to remove fallen debris from the canal below.

“What is most significant about this project is that the Iraqis are doing this completely on their own,” said Capt. Mark Gillman, an assistant engineer with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. “The bridge is funded by the Iraqi Government, a local company is doing all of the work, and the Iraqi Army is here for security.”

The project is separated into two phases. Each phase is scheduled for completion in three months. During the first phase, the contractors have worked to repair the hole in the northbound lane and break down the fallen span to remove it from the canal.

During the second phase, they will focus completely on rebuilding the missing portion of the bridge in the southbound lane.

The workers began construction June 29 and have made progress preparing foot paths, insuring the safety of the foundation and removing asphalt around the damaged area.

The steel portion of the bridge is on schedule to be finished in less than two weeks. Then the workers will move onto pouring the concrete, which should take a total of 28 days.

“By the end of the year the bridge will look like it used to,” said Gillman, a native of Las Vegas.

Each time a vehicle crosses the bridge, it passes a large sign that can’t be missed. Printed in Arabic, the sign reads “We will rebuild.”

“Seeing this project gives the people of Iraq confidence in themselves and their government. It gives them hope for the future,” said Saleem Abdul Karim, a bicultural and bilingual advisor working with the civil engineers. He is also a subject matter expert in engineering. “It is a light at the end of a tunnel.”

MNF-I

Continuing my coverage of the rebuilding of the Iraqi chicken industry…

Before the war, numerous areas in Iraq thrived off the chicken industry. Hawr Rajab, Arab Jabour and Adwaniyah all had prosperous chicken markets.

“Historically, this was the largest chicken-producing area in Iraq,” said Capt. Michael Lenart, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2-3 Brigade Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Insurgent violence ravaged the industry. Chicken coops and pens were used by insurgents as safe houses and weapons cache dumps. Electrical equipment such as cables, generators and water pumps were stolen or neglected after al-Qaida threatened employees to quit coming to work.

With security gains removing al-Qaida from the area, the effort is to boost chicken farming back to pre-war levels.

“Right now it is in its first phase,” said Baghdad-7 embedded provincial reconstruction team economics team chief, Capt. Shawn Carbone, of the restoration plans. He added the ePRT has established relationships, helped develop business plans and submitted applications for funding.

Funding will come from Commander’s Emergency Relief Program and U.S. Department of State funds, Carbone said, as well as contributions from former owners.

The Adwaniyah Farmers Union Chairman, Falih Sha’lan Jassim, used funds from the union to purchase 10,000 chicks to jumpstart the Adwaniyah chicken factories. In Arab Jabour, the owner of the Al Mazra’a Kupa and Chicken processing facility, Ghassan Mohammed Ali, has pledged more than $300,000 towards restoring his factory.

Ali’s factory, first constructed in 1982, can employ up to 95 people at full capacity. Larger factories such as the Al Raad Poultry slaughterhouse in Hawr Rajab, which includes six chicken coops, a feed-producing factory, and a processing plant that slaughters, cleans, packages and stores chickens, can employ up to 500 people, Carbone added.

Production will create new markets and opportunities. Transportation companies will be needed to move products to market and mechanics will be needed to maintain the machinery used for processing, said Carbone, a native of Niagara Falls, N.Y. The main market for chickens is currently Baghdad.

Baghdad chicken breeders will also benefit, said Lenart. Currently chickens and supplies needed to renovate buildings are purchased in Baghdad.

Structurally the buildings are stable; all that’s needed to start production is repairing machinery and cleaning out the buildings, said Lenart, a native of Richmond Hill, Ga.

Getting production started will help bring the Government of Iraq into the equation as well. Because the industries are privately owned, the GoI has not been largely involved. Government support has been largely limited to the Ministry of Agriculture providing vaccines to local veterinarians, Lenart said.

Once the businesses are up and running though, their involvement in newly-created business associations will give them government-related business incentives, loans and grants, Carbone said. Like the area farmers unions, which are recognized by the MoA, the chicken factories are currently forming their own subcommittees and will receive government aid.

Business owners are also taking classes from an Iraqi-run business development center in Hilla to help their companies prosper once they begin production.

The success of the industry is vital to not only the local communities, but to all of Iraq. A stable economy ties in with and supports security gains.

“Self-sustainment keeps out the influence of insurgents,” Carbone said. “Only when there is no alternative do people turn to violence.”

The projects will continue, with 5,000 more chickens set to be delivered in Adwaniyah on April 22. In the future, chickens will come from within the area from a hatchery under construction.

DVIDS
By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

We’re reaching a point where some of our soldiers in Iraq are more in danger from a stampede than from enemy action. And look at the author’s name, just for a yolk.

Chicken farming in Iraq is moving toward pre-war levels, as coalition forces work with farmers to overcome challenges.

Dialogue has begun on how to increase production with the owners of seven chicken houses in the region where the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, operates.

The community of Abu Lukah, one of the first areas where soldiers discovered chicken houses, has four chicken houses, three of which are functioning. The first visit by the unit was at the end of January, during which the owner, Abdul Sataar, had just begun a new cycle. Recently the unit revisited Chicken House No. 1 to check on the status of operations. It had been about 35 days since the arrival of the first batch of chicks, and in about 10 days the chickens would be ready for sale.

Of the initial 7,500 chicks, only 210 died during this cycle, a 2.8 percent loss for Abdul Sataar. He will sell the chickens to the highest bidder from the Baghdad, Karbala or Hilla markets.

“This is an absolute success story,” said Capt. David Stewart, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3-7th Infantry Regiment. “Abdul conducts his business without coalition assistance and is able to maintain profitability.”

Recently, four other chicken houses were discovered in the Abu Jasim area. Two had about 2,000 chickens and were able to produce seven crates filled with 350 eggs each. The farm is operating at about 50 percent of capacity due to limited electricity and fuel to run the generators. Profit from the eggs is being used to buy fuel and to keep the farm running, Stewart said.

The other two chicken houses face the same challenges, Stewart added. They have 24,000 white chickens and 18,000 red chickens, and are able to produce 77 crates of eggs daily.

Because limited electricity affects their capacity, the farmers are unable to sell chickens and to produce feed to sell at the market, Stewart said. The short-term solution is to replace the generators. The famers now have three generators, two of which need repairs.

The long-term solution, the captain said, is to get off the generators and use industrial power. Efforts are going to be focused on fixing the power to greatly impact the community, Stewart added.

(Army 1st Lt. William Perdue serves in the public affairs office of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.)

DoD
By 1st Lt. William Perdue, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

It looks like a nice place to visit. For that, you can thank the United States Marines.

A truck loaded with goods drives onto the infamous “Blackwater” bridge. The bridge once the sight where insurgents hanged the bodies of mutilated American contractors, now acts as a gateway into a thriving marketplace.

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