Update for September, 2012
Here is a summary of work
completed by Iraq Water Project since the last update, February 2012 (homepage
“What’s New”), together with other developments.
In April our friends at the
Nassiriya NGO placed a reverse osmosis (RO) water unit at a vocational
institution called Ur school, Thi Qar Province. They also provided a stainless
steel reservoir for drinking water, a new handwashing basin and a toilet. The
floor was retiled. This installation was a replacement for alFihood school,
described in the previous update. When the team arrived at alFihood with tools
and materials, they were told the local ministry of education had forbidden the
school’s principal to accept any manner of outside help. Draw your own
conclusions. Our regrets to the luckless students at alFihood.
In June we sent some funds to our
contact Ahmed at the aforementioned NGO to carry out repair work on previous
installations. I must painfully report that returning home from this work Ahmed
was killed in a car wreck. His brother Asaad, also with the NGO, was seriously
injured. This misfortune supplied one of the rare exceptions where IWP funds
were used for something other than water improvements: we wired Asaad money
both to help him cover medical expenses and pay some of the costs of his
brother’s funeral. All members of our project committee agreed.
Asaad has recovered
sufficiently---still hobbling with a cane---that he was able to fulfill his
brother’s promise to the Nassiriya Technical Institute to place RO units in
both the men’s and women’s dorms on campus. This was done in August.
We have also reestablished connection with life for Relief and Development, the American Islamic NGO we worked with at the very beginning of Iraq Water Project.
Life workers placed an RO water
unit at the Yaqout Hamwi school (900 students), Diyala Province in July, and
another project in that province is pending. We are glad to cooperate with Life
again; the vfp effort now covers two provinces. IWP once spread its wings over
much of the country, but when the original installation team was lost our
geography got pretty constricted. That story can be read at the August 2011
update.
I have received credible
information that the Iraqi government is making serious difficulties for
American or western aid organizations operating in their country. This obstacle
is added to the danger from anti-western extremists who view even people like us
as enemies. You will not find any Iraqi last names in these reports for exactly
this reason.
We thank again our friend engineer
Faiza, now in Cairo, and her family, as well as all the people over the years
who have made Veterans for Peace Iraq Water Project, and its twelve year
survival, possible. Salaam.
Art Dorland, IWP Chair