WASIT PROVINCE, Iraq - Local Iraqi boys watch as water flows freely from the Tigris River into an irrigation canal Nov. 14, 2010. The water is delivered through a pump station and feeds 1500 area farms. The Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team has overseen recent improvements to the station that included two new generators and several new pumps. US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Garrett Ralston

The Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team, escorted by members of Company H, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment held a meeting with local farmers in the Numaniyah area Sunday.

The farmers recently received new water pumps that pull water from a nearby river into a canal to irrigate local farmland. The meeting was an opportunity for PRT members and US Forces to see the pumps in action and also discuss future management of the pump station.

“The operation of this pumping station has been on and off since 2003,” said Armand Lanier, a PRT agricultural advisor from the United States Agency for International Development. “The station has pumped water through four antiquated pumps that have needed constant maintenance.”

In recent years the station has struggled to pump enough water to supply the 1500 area farms and was costly to keep up. With nobody officially responsible for the station it seemed it would remain out of service. Now with the new pumps and discussions developing between the farmers the station is on its way to effective production once again.

After the PRT assessment, funds were appropriated for two new heavy capacity generators to provide power for the pumps. The new pumps pull water horizontally from tubes that reach out further into the river allowing for greater pressure and more water. The canal now flows at the limit of it banks.

“The PRT plans to meet monthly with the farmers’ Water User Association,” said Lanier. “We want to teach them to be more water conscious which will increase production for them.”

The soldiers of Company H have an essential piece of the development of the area as well.

“Our responsibility is to enable the PRT by getting them out here and making sure they have a safe environment to operate in,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jeremy Hubacek, a platoon sergeant in Company H. “We also spend a lot of time with ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] and try to maintain positive relationships with them.”

Hubacek says it is important for USF to be engaged with these processes of Iraqi reconstruction.

“We really want to train the farmers to be better users of their water and agricultural resources,” said Lanier. “We want them to be effective on their own because that’s the aim of these projects.”

DVIDS
Story by Staff Sgt. Garrett Ralston

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter supporting 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division 'Highlanders' flies over a farm in Muthanna province. The Highlanders are deployed from Fort Bliss, Texas, to advise and assist Iraqi security forces in Muthanna province and collaborate with provincial reconstruction teams to fulfill requests for essential services from the Government of Iraq.

The Muthanna province in southern Iraq is a vast area, sparsely populated and dominated by wide expanses of desert. Life here remains much the same as it has for centuries. Bedouin tribes herd camels while subsistence farmers scratch out a living in the harsh landscape. The people of Muthanna are particularly hard hit by geography, living near the end of river flows obstructed further north by dams constructed under the regime of Saddam Hussein and never restored to their former glory. Access to clean water, reliable power and health care are in short supply.

Through cooperation between the provincial government, the U.S. State Department-led Provincial Reconstruction Team and Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, Task Force Pathfinder, the basic needs of Muthanna citizens are now slowly being met.

Task Force Pathfinder incorporates civilian experts, professional engineers and civil affairs units as it works hand-in-hand with the PRTs to develop projects and training programs to help the Iraqis deliver critical services to their people. In Muthanna, the focus has been providing essential services.

Over the past several months, the Pathfinders have sponsored more than 30 projects in Muthanna province through the Commander’s Emergency Response Program. More than half focused on providing water and power to impoverished villages.

“These programs serve two purposes. First, they reduce the number of waterborne diseases we are seeing among the children,” said Lt. Col. Michael Eastman, TF Pathfinder commander. “Second, by helping the elected Iraqi officials deliver basic needs to their people, we reduce the incentive of dissatisfied locals to oppose both American and Iraqi forces in the area.”

Sgt. 1st Class Kurt Hamilton, cannon crew member from New York assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, passes out candy to local children at a Muthanna water pipeline project site. Hamilton and Soldiers of Task Force Pathfinder assigned to 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division are deployed from Fort Bliss, Texas, to advise and assist Iraqi security forces in Muthanna province and collaborate with provincial reconstruction teams to fulfill requests for essential services from the Government of Iraq.

Reception by the people of Muthanna has been overwhelmingly positive. In areas where life was a daily struggle for existence, clean water is now available for both drinking and irrigating once dry fields.

“Getting out among the people has been a great experience,” said Sgt. Hugh Gunnerson, from Cannonsburg, Pa. “We can see the benefit of our mission in Iraq when people have something Americans sometimes take for granted, like clean water to drink.”

While this mission is different from what most of these artillerymen from Fort Bliss, Texas, expected to perform, they have adapted extremely well. Much remains to be done in Muthanna, but with this sort of close cooperation between Iraqis, PRTs and Soldiers of Task Force Pathfinder, progress is being made in southern Iraq.

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It didn’t cost a lot of money. It’s not very long. But this new canal will make a difference in the lives of hundreds of Iraqis in Anbar Province.

Private contractor Sufjan Zubar Johan and Marine 1st Lt. Daniel Thomas inspect a newly renovated canal in Sagrah, Iraq

Sagrah is a small, impoverished oasis in Iraq’s western Anbar province. The landscape is flat, cold and dry, and the small town has one hospital, but no emergency room.

Friendly waves greet the Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces as they patrol the neighborhoods where old men sit on plastic lawn chairs outside small stores smoking Jordanian cigarettes and returning complimentary gestures of “Salaam” (meaning peace, hello, and goodbye) to the patrollers.

The people here have lead simple lives and learned to live without luxury, but now they can crack a smile again because the Government of Iraq, along with Civil Affairs Team 5, Civil Affairs Group, Regimental Combat Team 8, has helped them build a water canal to irrigate land for farming.

“This irrigation system will be able to water 815 hectares of land,” said 1st Lt. Daniel Thomas, the team leader for CAT-5.

Many assessments were made by the civil affairs team and local governing authorities throughout the past year for this canal project alone.

Over $48,000 was put into the 1,000 meter canal where ten-inch pipes connect to the canal through a hand-cranked valve system that allows water to flow into selected patches of soil.

“This should replenish their food and their local economy,” said Thomas, a Santa Barbara, Calif., native.

Thomas, an artillery officer by trade, has learned a new skill set similar to that of a foreman in that he and his civil affairs team assess projects throughout their area of operations. His team is a mix of Marine communicators, food service specialists, artillerymen, and an infantry Marine.

The canal will help bring water to the barren fields of this small town, and in the spring, the locals will plant seed and care for their fruits and vegetables so that when the seasons change, the markets will have colorful displays of melons, tomatoes, cucumbers and grain.

“Everybody’s got to eat their vegetables,” said Cpl. Darnell Liesinger, a turret gunner with CAT-5 and Sioux Falls, S.D., native.

MNF-I
By Cpl. Eric C. Schwartz, Regimental Combat Team 8