The European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) is cooperating with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the Baghdad Municipality in a $1.75 million project to repair two sewage treatment plants and three sewage-pumping stations.
Sanitation and water facilities serving millions of people in Iraq have fallen into disrepair in the past decade due to lack of spare parts and equipment, posing risks to the environment and health.
Each day, 500,000 tons of raw sewage are discharged into Dyala river and flows into the Tigris. The treatment plants, now operating at half their capacity, were designed to serve the entire population of Baghdad -- nearly six million inhabitants. Rehabilitating the sewage pumping stations serving Al-Sayidia, Al-Bayaa and Al-Amil districts will improve services for 450,000 people.
In 2000 and 2001, UNDP and ECHO worked with the Baghdad Municipality to rehabilitate another sewage pumping station and a water treatment plant. The new initiative complements these efforts.
The project, kicked off in September, is restoring parts and damaged machinery, such as equipment for removing grit, settling tanks and pumps. It will also rehabilitate laboratories at the facilities and buildings housing the pumping stations and provide safety equipment for workers.
A decade ago, laboratories at the treatment plants carried out 12 types of water quality tests daily. Now the laboratory at one plant is out of service, and the one at the other plant functions at half capacity.
A report released last year by the UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, reported that cases of water-borne diseases such as typhoid multiplied by 10 fold between 1991 and 1999, when they affected 23,392 people. Workers say the concentration of gases and inadequate oxygen at sanitation facilities creates hardships and health problems for themselves and their families living at the sites. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
