114th Public Affairs Detachment

Story by Pvt. Karin Leach

BAGHDAD - Commander of the Gulf Region District, Col. Dan Anninos, visited the Sadr City R3 Water Treatment Plant and its workers to check up on how well the plant was functioning, recently.

The GRD also collaborates with Multi-National Corps - Iraq. The GRD mission is to provide engineering and construction management expertise throughout Iraq to assist the government here with its infrastructure.

"The Sadr City Water Treatment Plant is a vital community asset that supplies quality drinking water to over 500,000 citizens," Anninos, said. "The plant takes existing raw water from the Tigris and properly treats it in order to eliminate the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery."

The facility employs about 150 Iraqis and uses the existing raw water supply system and filtered out water to the existing distribution system.

While the average American is accustomed to using 161 gallons of water per day, residents of Sadr City were working with just 12 gallons per day. The $65 million water pant was completed a year ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help rectify the issue. The water treatment plant provides 25 million gallons of water a day, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources.

"We can all be proud of this facility as it was built by the hands, hearts and minds of our employees for the citizens of Sadr City," Anninos, said. "The facility today is well maintained and it is being utilized as it was intended."

The district was named initially Saddam City, after Saddam Hussein, but was later changed to Sadr City after the Imam Mohammed Sadr, a religious leader killed by Saddam. The district is one of the poorest in Baghdad and home to more than 2 million people.

"We have put Iraqis to work, we have assisted in coaching and training and mentoring this nation's many engineers so that they can take control and re-build their nation, one brick at a time while all along greatly improving the quality of life of the Iraqi citizens," Anninos said.

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