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Lifeblood of Iraqi farms returns

Jan- 5-2009 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – For thousands of years, the people in the rural areas surrounding Baghdad relied on canals to distribute water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers to farms in the area. It is these farms which sustain the people and provide fresh food to the city.

Since the 1960s the irrigation infrastructure fell into disrepair due to lack of maintenance and illegal tapping, said Capt. Mark Gillman, an engineer assigned to the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.

When violence struck the Taji Qada, northwest of Baghdad in 2003, irrigation systems were further degraded and the people who lived and worked on the land suffered. The hardest blow to the infrastructure hit in 2007 when a mortar round destroyed Pump Station 1. This pump station lies directly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and pumps water to nearly all the farms along the canal systems.

After that incident, the Government of Iraq disabled power to the pump station and the irrigation systems ran dry.

Recognizing the problem, Coalition forces began to work with the GoI to bring water back to the farms in the area.

Since August, approximately $1 million of GoI and Commander’s Emergency Relief Project funds have been poured into restoring and expanding the irrigation pump station, installing a dedicated electrical line and repairing the irrigation canals.

The results are clearly visible from the air. What was once brown, dry land now is green and lush and crops are thriving.

“It is really incredible, how green the area is now,” said Maj. Anthony Barbina, brigade engineer for the 2nd SBCT.

Barbina estimates nearly 13 square kilometers of farm land is now restored.

“The contrast (from the air) shows visually what we’ve been saying for months,” he said. “The security is better. When security is better, the government can function and as the security gets better the land starts producing again.”

There is still more to complete, but both Barbina and Gilman say they are hopeful that progress will continue and the GoI will continue to be instrumental in the further refurbishments of the irrigations systems in the area.


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