Local Mahmudiyah civic leaders, Sheiks, villagers and Multi-National Division- Baghdad Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 63rd Combined Arms Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division held a ceremony for the installation of two solar-powered water filters at Lutifiyah Nahia, Mahmudiyah Qada Dec. 16.

The $48,000 CERP water filters contract was awarded to the Ard Aleqa Contracting Company of Lutifiyah and will provide the 400 citizens of the community with potable water. Prior to the water filters this rural community did not have access to clean potable water and had no access to centrally distributed water.

“The people here get very little water, so it is good that we will be able to have clean water finally,” said Tah Hassim Fadha the Chaka 1 Leader, the equivalent of a town mayor.

Leaders from 1st Battalion, 63rd Combined Arms Battalion worked in partnership with the local government determine the best sites for the two water filters. One filter was placed near an Iraqi Army checkpoint in a rural area of with a population of 200. The other filter was located in another rural area, also with a population of 200.

The local sheik, Sheik Adnon Radhy, told the crowd he was pleased the community would now have access to clean water. After his speech the large crowd waited to taste the fresh water. One Iraqi was overheard saying that the people were so used to dirty water, that the clean water tastes bad and unfamiliar to the laughs of his fellow villagers.

“The rural areas are the heart of Mahmudiyah Qada and they are often overlooked by both the GoI and CF. It is great to be able to get out to these isolated communities and make a difference,” said 1st Lt. Robert Bowe, the civil military affairs officer for 1-63 CAB.

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In the southern Baghdad community of Radwaniyah, fresh water for drinking and irrigation is just a few signatures away.

In the farming communities that lie on the outskirts of Baghdad, fresh water is of the utmost importance for the people and the economic stability of the community and has a direct effect on the neighboring areas.

For the farmers in the rural community southwest of urbanized Baghdad, two serious problems are irrigation and fresh water, said Capt. Mark Miller, a spokesman for 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

Many parts of the area have a canal system running through their villages and farms, said Miller. They provide the groundwork necessary to get fresh, uncontaminated water to the farms.

“The canals are capable of providing two independent sources of water,” Miller said. “One source would provide water for crop irrigation and the other for potable water that citizens could use for drinking, cooking, and other domestic needs.”

The Government of Iraq and Iraqi Security and Coalition forces have combined their efforts to work with the residents to resolve the fresh water issue for the people of Radwaniyah.

A combat outpost in the community serves as the command center for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion., 64th Armor Regiment., and as the location for meetings between community leaders, ISF, and the 1st BCT Brigade Commander, Col. Ted Martin.

Martin expressed how CF would be aggressive in helping with the cleanup effort and how he expected the same from his Iraqi counterparts, during a meeting June 21.

Capt. David Cox, an engineer and projects officer from the 64th Armor Regt. provided a detailed briefing to the leaders during the meeting.

Cox spoke specifically about the status of improvement projects for the canals and provided his recommendations for the remaining work to be done.

After the briefing concluded, everyone traveled to a location near where a fresh water canal spills into contaminated water to get a first-hand look at the issues the farming community faces.

“This way, the ISF and CF commanders were able to see the problem in person along with the GoI leaders,” Miller said.

The group also traveled to a local water treatment plant to discuss the resources needed to make the plant operational, and what it would mean to the surrounding areas.

The people would no longer have to pay import tariffs for their food from neighboring countries, said Capt. David Simms, the commander of HHC, 4th Bn., 64th Armor Regt.

“Not only will the local farmers benefit and be able to start growing crops again, but this will bring Iraqi food to Iraqi markets,” said Simms. “It stimulates their economy by bringing more jobs to the area for farmers, as well as providing food at a lower cost to the community.”

The contracts to begin the canal work are currently in the hands of the GoI and awaiting signatures.

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Statistics don’t lie. Ninety percent of all water in Afghanistan is contaminated. The leading cause of death for Afghan children less than 5 years of age is diarrhea, often called “wasting away disease,” which can be linked directly to contaminated water.

“Water is a challenge,” said Afghan national army advisor Army Capt. Frank Tedeschi, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan’s installation operations and maintenance director.

“You cannot mention water in Afghanistan without talking about the significant water purification and wastewater treatment effort we are undertaking in partnership with the Afghans.”

To make water safe for consumption, two major purification systems are currently being used by
the ANA.

“Just two weeks ago, Camp Zafar in Herat province became the first camp to use the nano-filtration system, which will serve more than 3,000 troops,” Tedeschi said. “Before the nano-filter was installed, their water was undrinkable due to salinity and high nitrate content.”

The new supply of potable well water eliminates the need for bottled water at Camp Zafar, resulting in savings of more than $27,000 per month for the ANA. According to Tedeschi, five other ANA camps are slated to receive the new system.

“The system at Camp Zafar can filter up to 100,000 gallons of water a day,” Tedeschi explained. “With proper treatment, we can provide a mix that is capable of doubling the daily base supply to 200,000 gallons.”

The nano-filtration system screens impurities and other harmful organisms from the water.

The other water purification system most often used is the reverse osmosis water purification unit, or ROWPU.

According to Air Force Maj. Gregory Anderson, CSTC-A program manager, ANA garrisons,
some ROWPUs have the advantage of going where they are needed most—and fast. “Mobile ROWPUs are the most versatile,” Anderson said.

“We can use them with deployed units out in the field, and they can be set up in a matter of hours.”

In addition to providing safe drinking water, Anderson explained the importance of adequate wastewater treatment.

“For smaller encampments, septic tank containment systems are adequate,” Anderson said. “For larger populations, more sophisticated systems become necessary.”

Gravity-fed sewage treatment centers utilize a series of cleansing containment tanks, chemical and biological filters and chlorine tanks to treat wastewater.

“Herat will serve as a model of success for other encampments,” said Tedeschi. “The nano-filtration system will fill an increasing need for clean water as the number of Afghan troops increases at this camp.”

Tedeschi said Afghan facility engineers are looking at how to more effectively use filtered and
effluent water to best serve the ANA camps’ needs.

“We are providing the Afghans with an invaluable resource. This is the first time most ANA troops have had access to consistently safe drinking water,” Tedeschi said.

“With a little mentoring, we can give them tools they need to sustain their army and eventually address their nation’s water-related health problems on a wider scale,” Tedeschi said.

DVIDS
By Petty Officer 1st Class Douglas Mappin
Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan Public Affairs

At a water purification station in Sekreechet, two Iraqi Army Soldiers keep an around-the-clock vigil. One of the rooms in the small structure nearby serves as a bedroom. A few meters away, another Soldier stands near a sandbag bunker, guarding a concrete-lined canal.

Highway 8, one of the most heavily guarded roads in Iraq, runs in the near distance. The guards watch this location because the canal and pump station are part of the most important infrastructure system in Iraq.

Channeling Resources

“(Water) is the basic foundation of a civilized society. It’s a basic need. Once those needs are met, people can work on more complex things,” said Maj. Douglas Betts, commander of Company A, 415th Civil Affairs Battalion, which works with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, to ensure the area’s drinking water is safe.

The East Sekreechet Water Purification system filters and treats about 1,000 liters of water per hour for local citizens. It is similar to 24 other facilities in the south Baghdad area, which the 2nd BCT took control of in June 2007.

“There were existing water purification sites out there, but the majority were not working due to negligence,” said Betts. “In a couple of cases I can remember, the local citizens banded together and bought supplies themselves to keep the site up and running.”

“Without irrigation, everything dies – the crops, economics (and) the people. It’s a function of life,” said 1st Lt. Sam E. Clegg III, advisor to the Baghdad-7 embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, which works with the 2nd BCT to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure and economy.

Following the 2003 invasion, irrigation canals were rarely maintained. The canals require cleaning annually, as vegetation and debris collect in them. Prior to the war, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) maintained the canals regularly. “[The MoWR] did everything. Irrigation is one of the prime resources. It has to flow, because the further south you go, the economy is focused on agriculture,” Clegg said.

“With the collapse of the government, certain services were non-existent. One of them was maintenance and operation of pump stations,” said Clegg, a native of Churchville, Va.
Betts said that citizens often had to travel to other towns to get clean water, or do their best to purify water from the rivers or canals. Besides the inconvenience, there are public health issues at stake. Waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera are still ongoing concerns here.

Though some water purification units are fed by wells, systems like East Sekreechet get their water from the Tigris River, via the canal. The people of ancient Iraq learned to control the annual flooding and harvest the rivers’ resources through a vast network of irrigation canals over 5,000 years ago. Today, the 27,000 km of irrigation canals still play a critical role in the lives of Iraqis.

Though oil revenues provide most of the nation’s wealth, agriculture accounts for 20 percent of the economy, and one-fifth of the country’s land is used for farming. South Baghdad Province is mostly agricultural, but due to insurgent activity in recent years, representatives of the MoWR were reluctant to come into the area to oversee and maintain the canals.

None of the six water pumping stations in the area were operational as recently as November. The main challenge for operators was a lack of parts and supplies to keep the pumps running, said Clegg. The primary canals had not been cleaned at all in the past two years. 2nd BCT Soldiers took up the task, working with local sheiks and Sons of Iraq to restore this vital resource.

Creating new from old

In the past year, Soldiers of the 2nd BCT built six new water purification systems, while repairing and refurbishing all but one of the existing facilities. Betts said that despite the obvious improvements to Iraq’s infrastructure, Soldiers didn’t always have assurances the facilities would be taken care of when they left.

“The Ministry [of Municipalities and Public Works (MoMPW)] put out a letter dated 2006 saying that if the Coalition forces didn’t cooperate with the proper ministry, the ministry would have nothing to do with that site,” Betts said.

Securing and administering funds to maintain their facilities has been a problem for officials in the Government of Iraq, Betts said. He’s hopeful, though, that now officials at the MoMPW will take ownership of the water purification units.

“[MoMPW representatives] have completed all their inspections of the sites, and they’ve signed a memo at the qada and nahia level, saying ‘We’ve looked at them and we want to accept them’,” Betts said. He said he hoped the GoI would recognize the benefits of increased capacity to serve the citizens of this area.

“This is for the benefit of the people of Iraq. It’s not for our benefit or for a few individuals. We’re talking about the population of our operational environment having fresh water. It’s a staple of life,” Betts said.

Betts visited the pump station June 14 to make sure the $60,000 investment to repair and refurbish the facility was well spent.

“We can step back and watch,” he said. “It’s like a flower. You pour some water on it and watch it bloom,” Betts said.

Clegg said he was pleased with the GoI’s renewed involvement and the work 2nd BCT Soldiers have done to keep clean water flowing in the area for years to come.

“What we’ve done is shown the Iraqis we really care,” he said.

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By Sgt. David Turner
3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs