Getting water flowing in Hawija
Hawija is a ghost town.
This city, which lies halfway between Baghdad and Mosul, once numbered over 80,000 residents and is a testament to the utter destruction of war.
This was one of the last areas retaken from ISIL in the autumn of 2017, nearly three months after Mosul was declared to finally be free. But that liberty came at a heavy cost.
The way into town is cratered from road-side bombs. Shot up and bombed out cars litter the fields lining the road. Buildings are flattened — collapsed and damaged far beyond repair.
There are no women, no children to be seen anywhere. Families remain displaced in the nearby city of Kirkuk or in close-by camps. There is not much yet for them to return to. Utility services are minimal — the electricity is variable, and for certain telecoms networks there is still no signal. The security situation remains volatile, making it difficult for serious rubble clearing and reconstruction efforts to get underway.
The only signs of people are the soldiers manning the numerous checkpoints in and around the city, and at the water treatment plant where UNICEF is supporting rehabilitations, anticipating residents’ return.
At the water treatment plant, work is underway to get the plant back up and running, and UNICEF’s mobile water treatment unit is operating at a quiet hum. A water tanker is filling up, getting ready to serve one of the surrounding villages where people had either stayed in place or have already returned.
Between 30 Sept 2017 and 31 March 2018, nearly 100,000 people have returned to the Hawija area. However, population movements remain fluid as an additional 7,000 people have been displaced in the last week due to ongoing military operations.
Abdul Latif Shatha has been the senior operator of the water treatment plant since 2003.
“When ISIL took over, I stayed in my job for 5 months before fleeing with my family to Kirkuk. I never got paid for that work.
“When I returned, we found the treatment plant completely dysfunctional. All of the machines, pumps and drains were out of order and needed full repairs.”
As he speaks, men are clearing out the sand and gravel that is the first line of filtration, used to remove large particles from the water as it is pumped into the holding tanks from below. It is a labor-intensive process, with a wheel barrow being winched down, filled with silt and then winched back up. There are ten filtration tanks to be cleared.
Abdul Latif continues, “In the town, there was a mass destruction of houses and sewers, and properties were looted. Before, people [in surrounding villages] had to buy water and it wasn’t always safe. Now the water they’re getting is clean and drinkable.”
Water is currently being provided through one of UNICEF’s mobile water treatment units — an interim stop-gap to provide Hawija and surrounds with water while the treatment plant is brought back to full capacity. The equipment at nearly every stage of the water treatment process needs fixing, cleaning, maintaining, replacing or upgrading.
Once rehabilitations to the water treatment plant are complete, water will be pumped in to large holding tanks where the largest sediment and debris is removed. It then goes to the filtration tanks — the same ones that are getting fresh gravel and sand — before being pumped to the the next set of tanks where the water is purified with chlorine and then pumped to the storage tank.
Plans are in place to rehabilitate three water treatment plants in the district of Hawija, which will reach a total population of around 120,000 residents and returnees.
One of the most difficult issues for humanitarian organizations as well as the displaced residents remains access to Hawija and the surrounding areas. The security situation remains perilous, and political instability means that regulations change without notice. Procedures to bring in materials to rebuild and chemicals to purify the water has not yet been regularized, meaning that those who are still living in the area around Hawija are largely dependent on the one mobile water treatment plant that is operating three or four days per week. UNICEF is working with Kirkuk’s Department of Water to place the second one in the most beneficial location for residents, displaced people and returnees.
For people like Abdul Latif, getting the water treatment plant back up and running is not just a practical necessity, but also a return to normalcy. “I feel like I’m positively contributing to helping rebuild here.”
WASH activities in Hawija are made possible through funding from UNOCHA, KFW, ECHO and UK DFID.
Jennifer Sparks is a Communications Consultant with UNICEF Iraq.
