Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KIRKUK142
2006-08-22 06:47:00
CONFIDENTIAL
REO Kirkuk
Cable title:  

(C) KRG PROVIDING WATER TO 450-PLUS VILLAGES IN KIRKUK; POOR

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL KDEM IZ IR 
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VZCZCXRO6974
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL
DE RUEHKUK #0142/01 2340647
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 220647Z AUG 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0715
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0677
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0743
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000142 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, IRMO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL KDEM IZ IR
TU
SUBJECT: (C) KRG PROVIDING WATER TO 450-PLUS VILLAGES IN KIRKUK; POOR
SECURITY HINDERS WATER RECONSTRUCTION

KIRKUK 00000142 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Leader, POL, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000142

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, IRMO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL KDEM IZ IR
TU
SUBJECT: (C) KRG PROVIDING WATER TO 450-PLUS VILLAGES IN KIRKUK; POOR
SECURITY HINDERS WATER RECONSTRUCTION

KIRKUK 00000142 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Leader, POL, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: Kirkuk Provincial Council
(KPC) Minister of Water, Abdul Qadir, told IPAO on July 31 the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been supplying well
water to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),mostly Kurds, in
more than 450 villages on the periphery of Kirkuk city and its
vicinity. He said that deteriorating security in Kirkuk had
limited water reconstruction to assisting the city's residents
alone and that the KPC currently was not considering proposals
for the broader Kirkuk Province. Due to the security situation,
reconstruction had concentrated on three large projects designed
to have the maximum impact for the city (Ref. para. 10-12).
Water degraded severely before reaching the consumer due to poor
water pressure, cracked pipes, and unauthorized tapping. The
Water Ministry expected to finish the three large projects by
the end of 2007, and estimated these would meet population
demand for the city through 2013. KRG support for IDP
settlements could be part of a move to make these permanent,
possibly in preparation for re-drawing the municipal boundaries
prior to the referendum on Kirkuk's final status. END
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.

(C) KRG PROVIDING WATER TO 450-PLUS VILLAGES
--------------


2. (C) KPC Minister of Water, Abdul Muhammad Qadir, told IPAO on
July 31 that only 7 of the more than 450 villages surrounding
Kirkuk city received water from the main K-1 water treatment
pipe into the city. He claimed the KRG was providing water
services to the IDP settlements and many of the remaining
villages surrounding Kirkuk city by drilling artesian wells in

areas that did not connect to the city's water network. Qadir
said the KDP and PUK were actively encouraging NGOs to build
water projects and that many of these were located in areas with
large IDP settlements, such as Rahamiyah and Failaq. Qadir
claimed this was good since the construction of new settlements
in these areas would not have an impact on water consumption in
the city itself.

(C) POOR SECURITY HINDERS WATER RECONSTRUCTION
-------------- --------------

3. (C) Qadir said poor security remained the primary obstacle
to resolving Kirkuk's water problems. He said terrorists
recently attacked the K-1 water network into Kirkuk city and
suggested clearly labeling the new pipes "water" would help,
since the captured suspects confessed they thought they had
bombed oil pipelines. Qadir said the terrorists chose to attack
the K-1 pipeline for its remote location, its association with
Coalition or Coalition-funded contractors, and out of concern
that tribal shaykhs would react negatively to any attacks on
local water reconstruction efforts in the Hewija and Zab
sub-districts of Kirkuk Province. Qadir claimed Coalition
efforts to secure water projects in the southern village of Tel
Dhahab, in Zab, were due to its reputation as a center for
terrorism, and added that terrorists had used isolated, remote
water buildings through 2005 as strongholds to orchestrate
attacks but that this threat had been eliminated. He said that
fighting between Arabs and Turkoman had halted reconstruction
efforts in the Taza sub-district of Daquq, in southeast Kirkuk
Province, because Turkoman workers were not being allowed access
to the site.

(C) WATER DEGRADATION WIDE-SPREAD, SERVICE IS NOT
-------------- --------------


4. (C) Qadir said water arriving from K-1 to the pumping
stations on the city's outskirts was potable, but suffered
degradation as it moved south due to cracked pipes, poor water
pressure, power outages, and unsupervised tapping. Qadir said
according to Water Ministry estimates, about 40 percent of
Kirkuk city residents were without water, and those who had
water received service for only two or three hours, usually
every other day. Residents typically ran their water
continuously in these hours of service, he said, to fill rooftop
storage tanks that provided families with water during shut-off
times.

(C) FURTHER DEGRADATION TO SOUTHERN ARAB QUARTERS
-------------- --------------


9. (C) The former regime built K-1 prior to settlement of the
southern, mostly Arab areas of Kirkuk, according to Qadir, and
this system was only intended to send water to the city zones
north of these areas. The pipes connecting the northern zones

KIRKUK 00000142 002.2 OF 002


to the pump stations on the city's outskirts were in need of
repair, Qadir said, and already degraded the water before it
reached consumers in the northern and central parts of the city.
The water suffered further degradation as it moved south, he
said, because the southern areas were using small, temporary
pipes to tap into the main water pipes of the other city zones
to meet local demand. The Water Ministry authorized some taps,
he said, but "too many" pipes were connected on the instruction
and approval of local community leaders with no oversight from
the Water Ministry. Qadir said these levels of water
degradation had given rise to the prevailing sentiment that the
Kurds living in the northern parts of the city were deliberately
siphoning off the potable water for themselves before it reached
the Arabs in the southern quarters.

(SBU) NOTES ON THE THREE MAIN WATER RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
-------------- --------------


10. (SBU) K-1 water treatment project (MRGS Coordinates ME
3642-2856): located northwest of the city of Kirkuk.
Originally build under Saddam's regime, it was refurbished
between February, 2004, and September, 2005, with 4.1 million
USD from USAID and is currently managed mostly by Coalition and
contractor workers. (Note: all MRGS Coordinates are from the
38S Map Series. End note.)


11. (SBU) Dibis water station: an intermediate pump station
currently under construction at a cost of approximately 9
million USD and with an estimated pump capacity of 28 million
gallons per day, helping the northern villages between Dibis and
Kirkuk. Qadir said the Dibis pump station would solve shortages
throughout Kirkuk city, which currently operated with several
decentralized pumps operating at about 50 percent capacity.


12. (SBU) GST-5 Project (MRGS Coordinates ME 2350-5830):
currently under construction designed to pump water to the
southern, Arab quarters of the city. A proposed landfill (MRGS
ME 4288-0686) is expected to help alleviate the city's sewage
and drainage problems.

(C) BIOGRAPHHIC NOTES
--------------


13. (C) Abdul Qadir Muhammad Amin: Sunni Kurd; born in
Kirkuk; politically independent but has affiliations with the
Kurdistan Democratic Party; reportedly had strong and ongoing
relations with the Coalition Forces and local NGOs, especially
their engineering departments; received a Bachelor's of Science
Degree in Civil Engineering from Sulaymaniyah University; has
worked for the Water Department since 1986.

(U) COMMENT
--------------


14. (C) In a separate meeting, the director of a local NGO who
has been working on water reconstruction in the Kirkuk area
since 2003 corroborated Qadir's claims regarding past and
current water project statistics and estimates, as well as
security obstacles to water reconstruction and evident KRG
support to IDP settlements and northern villages. It was noted
further that the KRG, specifically the PUK, had not limited its
assistance to providing well water, but had made more permanent
contributions to the IDP settlements, such as building roads and
sewers. The KRG contributions could be part of a larger plan
to re-draw the city's municipal boundaries to include the new
Kurdish settlements prior to the referendum on Kirkuk's final
status. Qadir's statements correlate with other KPC directors,
who claim poor security is forcing them to focus on northern,
Kurdish areas by default.
JBIGUS