Dateline ACT

Iraq 1903

NCA of ACT re-opens office in Baghdad

Humanitarian organizations in Iraq are facing a tough task. Many places are impossible to get to because of a lack of security. It is the capital Baghdad that is facing the greatest challenges -- most of the government buildings have been bombed, several residential areas are in ruins, schools have been bombed and ransacked and a great number of unexploded ordinance lying around pose a real threat to people. Many residents do not feel safe in their own homes. People are being evicted from their homes, and gunfire can be heard both day and night. After dark few people dare to venture outside. In spite of the challenges, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is once again at work in and around the capital city with emergency projects as well as setting up long-terms projects -- a continuation of the work carried out by local staff during the war, ensuring that the hospitals had access to clean water even while bombs were dropping on the city.

By Hege Opseth Norwegian Church Aid-ACT International

Baghdad, May 9, 2003--The reunion between Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) consultant Baard Frostad and local NCA staff members was a joyful occasion. It had been difficult not knowing how Ali Muhsin Al Shalabi and Mustafa Yassen al Haddad were doing during the war.

"We are very happy that our employees here in Baghdad are well. They did a remarkable job keeping the water purification units working throughout the war," said Frostad, who has worked for ACT member NCA in Iraq for the last few years.

With the war over, but with many challenges ahead, NCA is once again at work full-time in and around Baghdad, implementing emergency projects as well as planning long-term projects.

Saddam Hospital, which consists of several hospitals within the same complex, received injured civilians throughout the war. Without water the situation would have been even worse than it was – and is. The water purification units NCA installed only two days before the war broke out were vital when the central water distribution system stopped working. Every water purification unit can produce 20,000 liters of clean drinking water an hour.

"We had to go and check that the units were working. For ten critical days the machines were the vital parts in the system that supplied the water the hospital needed," Ali explains, who several times during the bombing raids went to check that everything worked as it should.

Already by last Friday, the office was full of activity again. Ali and Mustafa are happy that things are returning to something that at least resembles normalcy and that they can start with the job of rebuilding their war-torn country.

"We hope that all Iraqis now will unite and let what belongs in the past stay there. We need a life without conflicts and war. Our country and our people deserve it. And if things are to move forward, the people must have access to clean water," Mustafa says.

The Iraqi civil engineer has worked for NCA for a long time rehabilitating the waterworks in the country. He thinks the organization has an advantage when it comes to the work ahead. "We have the contacts and were repairing waterworks even before the war started. Already we are back to repairing waterworks in the field," he says.

During a field visit to Al Hillah in the governorate of Babil, they found that 70 percent of the population had access to clean water. The local government is functioning, and the local waterworks had escaped the bombing. "This means that we can once again work with long-term projects. In a few months' time we hope that the work has progressed, so that 100 percent of the population in the governorate of Babil has access to clean water," Frostad says.