Iraq is planning to resume work soon on the stalled Basra Water Supply Improvement Project, located in Basra Governorate in southern Iraq, with the Ministry of Planning following up and addressing the reasons behind the delays, a ministry spokesperson said. 

The project aims to provide water supply facilities, including a water treatment plant and a water distribution network, in Basra and Haritha, thereby improving the water supply in both cities, according to a May 2018 statement by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which helped finance the project. 

Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi told Zawya Projects that the Ministry’s central follow-up department has conducted a field visit to the Al-Hartha area, adding that the team found the completion rates to be 98 percent for the 360,000 cubic metres/day (m3/day) water treatment plant, and the associated 33/133kVA substation; 51.5 percent for the transmission system, which includes the pumping and water circulation stations, and 5 percent for transmission and distribution pipelines. 

In 2014, a consortium of Japan’s Hitachi, France’s Veolia (OTV) and Egypt’s Arab Contractors had been awarded a five-year Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract for a 199,000 m3/day brackish water desalination plant as part of the Basra project. 

Al-Hindawi said the ministry emphasised on the need to avoid delays in its follow-up report and has assured that work on the project will resume once the problems identified by the field team are resolved.  

(Reporting by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@lseg.com) 

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