Iraq’s Ministry of Planning said work will soon resume on the Al-Kifl and Al-Musayyib-Alexandria-Jurf Al-Sakhar water projects in Babil Governorate.
The Ministry’s spokesperson Abdel-Zahra Al-Hindawi said that the Al-Kifl water project has a production capacity of 4,000 cubic metres per hour.
The project, which includes a water filtration plant, a 3-kilometre, 1000mm intake pipeline from the Euphrates River and a water distribution network extending for 60km, will supply potable water to approximately 250,000 residents of the Al-Kifl district and neighbouring areas.
He said the Ministry’s field team identified inefficient financial planning, lax implementation, and absence of work schedule on the contractor’s side as primary obstacles to project implementation.
Al-Hindawi said the Al-Musayyib-Alexandria-Jurf Al-Sakher project is being implemented over 40 acres with a design capacity of 6,000 m3/hour.
The project, which is 62 percent complete, includes a filtration plant and a water distribution network totalling 45km and will serve approximately 120,000 residents.
The project started in 2013 and was stalled due to the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Al-Hindawi noted that project implementation was hindered by existing utility networks and roads and bridges in the project area, but a lack of cooperation and coordination on the part of the relevant authorities with the contractor and between themselves compounded the problem.
He said the old contractor had been replaced with a new contractor to implement the project.
