U.S. struggles to restore Iraq water (70% without access to decent water)

[ProSense]

U.S. struggles to restore Iraq water

By Bobby Caina Calvan, McClatchy Newspapers 1 hour, 1 minute ago

AL-SADIYAH, Iraq -- The water tankers arrive twice a week in this parched village surrounded by fallow fields stretching into the horizon. The town's wells still pump out a flow, but few villagers dare drink from it unless in desperation.

At the gate of Kayria Fayhan's home, 250 gallons of the trucked-in cargo fill a metal tank for cooking and drinking, sometimes for washing up if itching from the groundwater becomes unbearable.

Even the "clean" water from the tanker is a gamble on some weeks. "They say the water is clean, but sometimes the water is green," Fayhan said. "Sometimes, there's rust floating in it."

Despite the fact that Iraq and U.S. officials have made water projects among their top priorities, the percentage of Iraqis without access to decent water supplies has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent since the start of the U.S.-led war, according to an analysis by Oxfam International last summer. The portion of Iraqis lacking decent sanitation was even worse -- 80 percent.

more

[marmar]

1. The enormity of what BushCo has done to that country is overwhelming .....

If there's a collective national karma, ours is f**ked.

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[flashl]

3. They gotta be loving us

Giant U.S. embassy rising in Baghdad

April 2006

THE SITE HAS 21 STRUCTURES

With buildings dedicated to security, vehicle maintenance and facilities management, storage, utilities, and water and wastewater treatment

Only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.

The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman.

The same cannot be said for major projects serving Iraqis outside the Green Zone, the Senate report said. Many — including health clinics, water-treatment facilities and electrical plants — have had to be scaled back or in some cases eliminated because of the rising costs of securing worksites and workers.

[DemoTex]

4. How are they doing with Atlanta's water?

Just wondering.

[L. Coyote]

5. What, any year now? n/t