Signs of comfort are as evident on Abi Ammar (58 year), after the end of suffering of buying and transporting water.
Abu Ammar has been living with his family of (28) people for 70 years in the Rabatt area in the central province of Basrah, and in high summer heat temperatures, he used to carry water containers and walk a long distance to buy drinking water.
His relationship with the land is solid, as he inherited the agricultural profession from his father, who was working such with the people of the region, but the scarcity and salinity of water around the agricultural lands turned into barren lands and that contributed to causing great damage to agricultural crops, and quite a few of them turned into residential lands.
Basrah suffers from a permanent shortage of drinking water, in addition to the salinity of the water, especially in the summer.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society has initiated to solving this problem by establishing a large plant in the Rabatt region, where water treatment and desalination plants with a capacity of 600 m3/h were installed, so that to meet the needs of more than 55 thousand people in the areas of Al-Hakimiyah, Al-Tamimiyah, Al-Asharr and Al-Dakir.
The said stations purify water from salts and impurities so that the residents of the area and the surrounding areas do not have to buy potable drinking water. And to install it in these areas and remote areas to avoid water scarcity and salinity.
Abu Ammar said “After installing and operating a desalination plant in our area, our situation has changed regarding obtaining drinking water instead of buying it. Now we get water for free from the station, and it is always available, we do not need to bother and walk long distances to get water”.
He added, “now there is no need for using domestic water pumps (motors) to obtain the water, which was often polluted, and contains many impurities, in addition to its high salinity.”
The number of stations that have been installed by the Iraqi Red Crescent throughout the country is (44) stations to desalinate and purify’ drinking water, as said by Mr. Nawar Abdel Qader, Head of the Water and Sanitation Department – the Iraqi Red Crescent.
Abdel Qader said that all the devices and pumps of these stations are of solid international origin in order to ensure their continuity of work as long as possible, in addition to the crescents’ teams did a training for specialized cadres in order to maintain these stations to keep them working.
Water stations have been installed in remote areas, villages, countryside, and areas that suffer from scarcity and abundance of drinking water, according to field surveys carried out by the Red Crescent teams in coordination with the concerned authorities from the water directorates in that areas.
Water stations are distributed according to geographical area as follows: fifteen stations in Basrah Governorate, nine stations in Baghdad Governorate, four stations in Nineveh Governorate, nine stations in Babil Governorate, three stations in Wasit Governorate, four stations in Dhi Qar and three stations in Muthannah Governorate.
Finally, the number of beneficiaries of the said plants is more than one million five hundred thousand.