This report highlights USAID's overall accomplishments and recent reconstruction efforts in Iraq. For more information, please visit www.usaid.gov/iraq.
USAID assists Iraqis in reconstructing their country by working with Iraq's Interim Government. Programs are implemented in coordination with the United Nations, country partners, nongovernmental organizations and private sector partners.
ELECTRICITY
USAID's goals include the emergency repair or rehabilitation of power generation facilities and electrical grids. Teams of engineers from the Ministry of Electricity, USAID and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working since May of 2003 to restore the capacity of Iraq's power system.
Major Accomplishments to Date
- By October, 2003, rehabilitated electric
power capacity to produce peak capacity greater than the pre-war level
of 4,400 MW. Production reached 5,365 MW on August 18, 2004.
- Since achieving record power production
in Summer '04, the Ministry of Electricity - with assistance from USAID
- has begun the standard Fall maintenance process which will necessarily
reduce the amount of power available for consumption. USAID worked with
the MOE to conduct last Fall's maintenance program.
- Repairing thermal units, replacing turbines,
rehabilitating the power distribution network, and installing and restoring
generators.
- USAID has added 535 MW of capacity through
maintenance and rehabilitation work, and also repaired a 400 KV transmission
line.
- USAID and the Ministry of Electricity
are working with partners to add a total of more than 1,281 MW to the national
grid by December 2005 through maintenance, rehabilitation, and new generation
projects.
- USAID completed a project to convert
two units that produce 80 MW each to operate on crude/heavy fuel oil instead
of diesel which is in short supply.
- Most recently, USAID has initiated a project to rehabilitate 13 existing substations and construct 24 new substations in Baghdad. These 37 substations will improve the distribution and reliability of electricity for more than two million Baghdad residents.
Highlights this week
Work to rehabilitate heat exchangers and water treatment systems is now complete at two of four thermal power plants in Basrah Governorate. The work is essential for the continued delivery of electricity in the area. The heat exchangers were in a state of severe disrepair with outdated, inadequate, or improvised parts, and were limiting plant output. At the largest thermal plant, a war-damaged water treatment plant was kept marginally operational by the ingenuity plant technicians.
The rehabilitation of the water treatment units is also critical for the plants' operation, as they allow the production of high-quality boiler water for thermal plants and cooling of water for combustion turbine plants. Long-term use of poor quality water can result in permanent equipment damage, power outages from down-time, and costly repairs. Sub-standard service water and cooling water for combustion turbine systems has similar consequences. This will improve the reliability of electrical generation and extend the life of the plants, and efficiency gains will at 20 megawatts to Basrah's electrical grid. This project is scheduled to be complete in March 2005.
Work at one of the two remaining plants continues, including: building enclosures, pump installation, pump pads, filtered water tanks, and erection of a third clarified water tank. At the other plant, sidewalls for desalinated and intermediate storage water tanks are complete. Reverse-osmosis control cables are being connected to main panels at both plants.
WATER AND SANITATION
USAID's goal is to improve the efficiency and reliability of existing water and wastewater treatment facilities, especially those in the south where water quantity and quality are particularly low. An anticipated 11.8 million Iraqis will benefit from USAID's $600 million in water and sanitation projects.
Major Accomplishments to Date
- Nationwide: Repaired various
sewage lift stations and water treatment units.
- Baghdad: Expanding one water
treatment plant and constructing another to increase capacity by approximately
70 million gallons per day; rehabilitating sewage treatment plants.
- A major wastewater treatment plant in Baghdad began operating in June of 2004; this is the first major sewage plant in the country to operate in over 12 years.
- The sewage treatment system in Baghdad, barely functioning for years before the conflict, will be restored to almost 100- percent capacity, serving 80 percent of Baghdad's population.
- Standby generators are being installed at 41 Baghdad water facilities.
- South: Rehabilitating parts of
the Sweet Water Canal system, including repairing breaches, cleaning the
main reservoir, and refurbishing 14 water treatment plants around Basrah
serving 1.75 million people.
- South Central: Rehabilitating two water plants and four sewage plants.
- North: Rehabilitating two water plants and one sewage plant near Mosul and Kirkuk.
- Completed the rehabilitation of a sewage plant in Babil Governorate.
- Sewage plants in An Najaf, Al Qadisiyah, Karbala, and Babil Governorates will serve 440,000 upon completion.
- Water treatment in Najaf and Babil
will serve residents and visitors at Iraq's holiest shrines.
Highlights this week
Work has begun to expand and refurbish a water treatment plant in Karbala that has long experienced structural failures. Before the repairs began, compact water treatment units were installed nearby to allow continued water service while the rehabilitation moves forward. Repairing this plant is particularly important because, in addition to providing clean water to Karbala residents the plants supplies potable water to an estimated three million religious pilgrims to the Al-Hussein Shrine in Karbala each year.
Because of its high total suspended solids, the alum- and chlorine-dosing processes were overloaded and sand filter function was impaired. Besides producing a poor-quality, highly turbid water, suspended solids combined with chlorine thus reducing free chlorine available to disinfect the water. Marginal disinfection was effective with most bacteria, but hardened cysts of Giardi lamblia and Cryptosporidium survived disinfection. These pathogens cause amoebic dysentery, a public health risk exacerbated by Karbala's seasonal three million-person pilgrimage.
Compact clarifier units will be installed adjacent to the existing clarifiers, allowing for rehabilitation of the existing plant. Each unit has a flow capacity of 400 cubic meters per hour. The existing inlet works and associated pump station will also be enlarged. Workers at the site are re-routing pipe, disassembling a pump at the low lift station, and compacting and placing concrete for equipment pads. This project is scheduled for completion in September 2005.
Work is continuing on the rehabilitation of Baghdad's Rustimiyah wastewater treatment plant. The plant is one of three major wastewater treatment plants serving nearly 80 percent of the capital city's residents. The three plants' treatment capacity steadily eroded under years of neglect prior to liberation and was further impacted by looting after the 2003 conflict. Prior to the rehabilitation of one branch of the Kerkh treatment plant in June 2004, none of Baghdad's sewage was being treated.
Recently, new electrical motors were installed in Stage 1 aeration tanks and tests were completed on the Stage 2 sludge return pumps at the Rustimiyah plant. In addition, knife valves and actuators were installed at the Stage 2 pump station and submersible pumps and penstocks were installed in distribution chambers. When finished in March 2005, this and the two other Baghdad sewage treatment plants will help to safeguard public health and protect the Tigris River from further contamination by raw sewage.
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