Powering west Mosul’s water plants
Mosul was declared fully liberated by the Prime Minister of Iraq in early July, and the difficult work of rebuilding has begun. More than 700,000 civilians are still away from their homes – waiting to restart their lives. Through its Funding Facility for Stabilization, UNDP has been implementing projects in Mosul in close proximity to […]Hugo de Vries writes for UNDP:
Mosul was declared fully liberated by the Prime Minister of Iraq in early July, and the difficult work of rebuilding has begun. More than 700,000 civilians are still away from their homes – waiting to restart their lives. Through its Funding Facility for Stabilization, UNDP has been implementing projects in Mosul in close proximity to the front line since late 2016. More than 300 are already under way and hundreds more are starting in coming weeks.
We’ve had to find quick pragmatic solutions for difficult problems. The New Water Treatment Plant (al-Ayman al-Jadeda), which provides safe drinking water to half the population in western Mosul, is a good example. Rehabilitating the facility has involved fixing pumps and internal machinery as well as ensuring a predicable supply of power. After surveying local capacities, teams on the ground agreed on a pragmatic division of labour. With the Government providing technical guidance, the Danish Refugee Council replaced the transformers, which they had on hand, while UNDP strung a high voltage line across the Tigris river from eastern Mosul, where the Government has already restored parts of the power grid, to the water plant.
