While the ancient Tigris River flows a few miles away, many farmers in the northern Baghdad districts of Adhamiyah and Istaqlal are left with little alternative but to use sewage water to irrigate their crops.

Engineers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad, as well as Civil Affairs Soldiers with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, visited a water pump station in Adhamiyah July 23, to determine its viability to meet the peoples’ needs.

With only one of seven pumps in working order and no power source for three months, the engineers determined the station would need a complete rehab to be suitable for use.

“Six pumps are in very bad shape,” said Vick Karine, water engineer for MND-B G-9. “We need electrical, circuit breakers, switch gears, all the electricity plus the intake of it. We need to change, at least in my opinion, the system of the intake and we need to clean and flush the power area on the intake and the discharge. It’s a full rehab, basically.”

Faras Ahmed, who oversees this plant, noted the value a fully functioning water pump station in Adhamiyah would provide.

“I need to fix the station to share the water,” he said.

In sharing the water, Karine, an Oxford, England, native, said the benefit will not only be to the farmers, but also residents of those regions as well.

“The farmers, instead of tapping into potable water, they will take the raw water and we will have more potable water for the people. Plus, we need the economy of the irrigation area,” he said.

This visit marks only the first step in helping to solve the area’s need for water and does not mean this specific pump station will be refurbished.

“This would be very early stages. We’re just technical scoping the project,” said Maj. Jim Daffron, a Knoxville, Tenn., native, who serves with the 926th Engineer Brigade, MND-B.