September 13, 2004

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  Iraqi women gather dried sewage at the Rustamiya plant for use as fertilizer. Slow progress with Iraq reconstruction

  
  

  By Aram Roston

  
  

  Producer

  
  

  NBC News

  
  

  Updated: 11:30 a.m. ET Sept. 3, 2004

  
  

  BAGHDAD, Iraq - A torrent of raw sewage from east Baghdad roars from a giant pipe into a tributary of the Tigris River. With a rancid stench that saturates the area, the stuff has been pouring into Iraq's main waterway since the U.S. military action to oust Saddam Hussein last year.

  
  

  "People are now basically drinking raw sewage anywhere downstream from Baghdad, which is much of the population."

  
  

  The public health dangers range from cholera to minor stomach problems. “There is more diarrhea, there is more skin disease, there is more eye disease, there are more health problems.”

  
  

  The coalition forces and their civilian counterparts were supposed to be fixing the sewage system of Iraq and millions of dollars have been budgeted for the work.

  
  

  In addition, a massive $18 billion reconstruction package passed by Congress in November of 2003 set aside $675 million in taxpayer funds for sewage projects.

  
  

  The sewage treatment plant came to a complete standstill after the 2003 U.S. military action. Iraqis say it had worked until then.

  
  

  

  
  

  The Tigris River

  
  

  Shortly after the U.S. military occupied Iraq, the United Nations attempted to repair the plant, at no cost to U.S. taxpayers. But in the summer of 2003 the Coalition Provisional Authority asked the U.N. experts to abandon their work.

  
  

  A year later, even though the sewage is not being processed at Rustamiya, the reconstruction funds have been.

  
  

  In the summer of 2003 the United States Agency for International Development assigned Bechtel Corp. to the case.

  
  

  $5.75 million came from USAID – American taxpayer funds that is -- for Bechtel to get started on Rustamiya, and another $9 million for another sewage facility named Kerkh in Western Baghdad.

  
  

  USAID government awarded Bechtel an extra $6 million as a fee to oversee any contractors hired by the CPA.

  
  

  During an unannounced visit eight months after work supposedly started -- there was no heavy equipment, no laborers or replacement parts for the pumps and machinery at the Rustamiya site.

  
  

  From Magdalene_Papillion

  
  

   

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