Army-led project brings clean water to villages in Marine-run zone

[CADsortaGUY]

During Saddam Hussein's reign, Teabon's Mahal Tribe and Qutnyah's Assaf Tribe were neglected and denied clean water.

Army-led project brings clean water to villages in Marine-run zone

Submitted by: 1st Marine Division

Release Date: 6/4/2004

Story Identification #: 20046435021

Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

CAMP AR RAMADI, Iraq(June 3, 2004) -- The 4,500 residents of Teabon and Qutnyah villages have never had their own potable water source.

Soldiers with Army's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, working in support of 1st Marine Division, stepped in a few months ago to fix that problem.

During Saddam Hussein's reign, Teabon's Mahal Tribe and Qutnyah's Assaf Tribe were neglected and denied clean water.

"The previous regime didn't see fit to give these people water," said Army Lt. Col. Thomas S. Hollis, the battalion's commander. "The sheiks asked for assistance but to no avail."

The sheik of Teabon, Gen. Hardin, had been an outspoken critic of Hussein and his regime.

Once the Coalition ousted Hussein's notorious Ba'ath Party, the leaders of the two villages sought help.

"We began this series of water projects about five months ago," Hollis explained. "We knew we needed to get it done."

Up until now, the villagers have been hauling buckets of cooking, bathing and drinking water from the Euphrates River and irrigation canals.

Both sources are highly polluted, causing many birth defects amongst the younger villagers.

"Not having fresh water makes the people very susceptible to disease," Hollis explained.

Bidding for the projects ended early this year and construction on new water purification and distribution sites began almost immediately.

"Of the seven million dollars we have to spend on civil military operations in our area of operations, $165,000 dollars went to Teabon and $145,000 went to Qutnyah," said Army Capt. Jeffrey E. Flach, the battalion's civil affairs officer.

The two companies in charge of the projects were awarded the contracts based on their reputations and their "price tags."

"A lot of the companies bidding were asking for two or three hundred thousand dollars," Flach added. "These two companies came in with very reasonable offers."

Since construction started, nearly 5 kilometers of pipe was installed in Teabon and 7 kilometers in Qutnyah.

Both water facilities - built from the ground up - are state-of-the-art and are similar to those found in the United States.

Flach visited both of the sites to check up on the progress.

"There's not too much room for improvement at either site," he said. "Now the focus is getting the water distributed to the homes."

According to Hollis, that will take time.

"This project is not something that will serve just for now," he said. "It'll serve in the future as well. As the area expands and more families migrate here and more buildings pop up, fresh water will be available."

 

[Czar]

genuinely good news and not some feelgood news that often gets posted

 

[naddicott]

Thanks for the article & link. Always happy to see work being created for environmental engineers. Military contracts have generally been a good source of revenue for that industry - it's good work and important work, saving lives in a different manner.

 

[Sternfan]

Great news to bad no major news cast will cover it like they did the prison scandal.
There was another good story where 7 Iraqi?s received new hands after Saddam cut them off but that received no play at all.

 

[Strk]

Good news to start the weekend off with

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Sternfan
Great news to bad no major news cast will cover it like they did the prison scandal.
There was another good story where 7 Iraqi?s received new hands after Saddam cut them off but that received no play at all.

i saw a special about that on CNN a while ago

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: Sternfan
Great news to bad no major news cast will cover it like they did the prison scandal.
There was another good story where 7 Iraqi?s received new hands after Saddam cut them off but that received no play at all.

It received a little coverage. I forget what channel it was on, but I remember seeing a story on a half dozen or so men receiving new hands.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Sternfan
Great news to bad no major news cast will cover it like they did the prison scandal.
There was another good story where 7 Iraqi?s received new hands after Saddam cut them off but that received no play at all.

probably because this is expected while abusing prisoners is not

 

[dmcowen674]

Hey CAD & Co that Love Iraq so much, why don't you guys go there personally and help out???

It should be safe because you guys say they want us there so much and they love us.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Hey CAD & Co that Love Iraq so much, why don't you guys go there personally and help out???

It should be safe because you guys say they want us there so much and they love us.

If you don't like the situation how about you actually do something about instead of complaing on ATPN all day?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Hey CAD & Co that Love Iraq so much, why don't you guys go there personally and help out???

It should be safe because you guys say they want us there so much and they love us.

If you don't like the situation how about you actually do something about instead of complaing on ATPN all day?

Little Ol me, not a member of the RBC???

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Hey CAD & Co that Love Iraq so much, why don't you guys go there personally and help out???

It should be safe because you guys say they want us there so much and they love us.

If you don't like the situation how about you actually do something about instead of complaing on ATPN all day?

Little Ol me, not a member of the RBC???

Why is everything turned into a RBC thing with you? This thread is about two places that now have clean water to drink instead of contaminated stuff they scooped from the river.

CkG

 

[GoPackGo]

our soldiers are doing so much good over there its incredible.

saddam raped that country and the UNs cronies got rich while the people of Iraq suffered.

How can the UN ever come up with Countenance for that?

But the war was unjust, thats right!

Oh...and the no WMD crowd? Paitence young Jedi

 

[chess9]

Nice post.

-Robert

 

[Red Dawn]

You know why this type of news gets little coverage? Because most Americans could give a sh!t about those Iraqis..honestly.

Now what would be good news to our ears would be the Iraqis themselves fighting and destroying the insurgents and terrorists instead of running away at the first sign of trouble.

 

[GoPackGo]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
You know why this type of news gets little coverage? Because most Americans could give a sh!t about those Iraqis..honestly.

Now what would be good news to our ears would be the Iraqis themselves fighting and destroying the insurgents and terrorists instead of running away at the first sign of trouble.

They did catch that big terrorist recently that was in the news yesterday

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: GoPackGo

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
You know why this type of news gets little coverage? Because most Americans could give a sh!t about those Iraqis..honestly.

Now what would be good news to our ears would be the Iraqis themselves fighting and destroying the insurgents and terrorists instead of running away at the first sign of trouble.

They did catch that big terrorist recently that was in the news yesterday

Well that's a start. :thumbsup: