Unit of the Day Award

Installment Two of the post formerly known as "Hey, the MSM Didn't Tell Me This." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District (GRS) has completed QA/QC efforts on seven of fourteen water supply systems in the area surrounding Najaf and Kufa. CENTCOM reports:

Tallil, Iraq – Estimates put the shortage of potable water in the area surrounding Najaf and Kufa at about 40 percent, with existing plants being old or deteriorated because of neglect or lack of maintenance.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District (GRS) has quality assurance responsibilities on 14 water treatment units and three water pipeline projects that will increase that drinkable water flow within the Najaf area.

The water projects, worth approximately $12 million, involve the installation of 14 compact water treatment units and piping, according to Darrell Flinn. These compact units require highly skilled labor to maintain them, and training the staff is part of the overall package. “These require a technical labor force that has been taught to use this equipment,” he said.

Seven of the 14 small units are finished and the rest are in various stages of completion. The three pipeline projects are 90 percent completed, or better. “It is really critical to bring water to these neighborhoods,” said Flinn. “So many people don’t have access to good clean drinking water. This is what we are trying to fix now – and I’m happy to say that everything is going very well, but for every project we do, several more are needed.”

The average person uses about 71 liters of water a day, and this includes domestic water for cooking and bathing as well, according to the World Health Organization. Each of the units can put out about 200 cubic meters of water an hour and one cubic meter equals about 1,000 liters. “Assuming the units operate for 10 hours a day, they would put out about 2 million liters of water a day,” he said. “And when you divide the total number of liters each unit puts out per day buy the number of liters each person uses, you come up with 28,109 people who are able to be served by one unit. Multiply that times 14 plants and these units can serve 393,926 people. And that is a substantial gain for the people of Najaf.”

At the time of transition to sovereignty June 2004, there were just over 200 Reconstruction projects started. Today, there are over 2,700 projects started, valued at $6.4 billion. More than 1,600 projects are finished, with a value of $1.8 billion.

In my day to day life as an environmental consultant, I have serious problems with the Corps --but not this time.

Open Post thanks to The Mudville Gazette