Take me to the River

On Monday, I got picked up for a ride to Istaqlil. It’s an area almost directly north of Baghdad along the eastern side of the Tigris, filled with farms and irrigation canals. We took the river road up into the countryside. Date trees and other crops, including mums and marigolds, were on the far side of the road. A row of mansions were on the river side. The soldiers I was with drive on this road all the time, and they’ve learned where the really big houses are. We rounded one bend to find a palace looming over the river, a middle eastern Hudson Valley. They looked like summer homes, resorts for the rich. Nearer the road, some of the farmers sold drinks and produce from makeshift stands.The military is working here to restore the canals that pipe water over thousands of acres in the Istaqlil farmland.

The captain I was with took me to a water pump station Monday because the project was a success. A new underground power line would power three transformers to late the water pumps run 24 hours a day, if needed. The project would restore water to some farms that had been dry for six years. The pumps also provide water to a small village. Right now, they get drinking water about every three days.

Yet on Monday, the water pumps were still. A substation that powered the pumps was off, and the one transformer that normally worked was silent. The buried power line had made it to the water pump station, but it had yet to be hooked up to the three transformers. The electrical worker was waiting for official word from his boss before doing the work. Meanwhile, more than a dozen local residents and farmers were there to complain about the lack of electricity and water. The man who runs the station said the crowd of complainers was normal.

I’ve noticed one thing during this trip in and around Baghdad that I didn’t see during the past two trips – nurseries. I don’t know if it’s an east/west thing (in 2005 and 2007, I was west of the Tigris). I don’t know if it’s a recovery thing. I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying attention. Whatever the case, an abundance of plants are for sell now in Eastern Baghdad and its suburbs.

This water pump station irrigates many of those nurseries, I imagine. But the woes at the station are as meandering as the canals that flow out from it. The electrical station that powers the water pumps is down to one transformer, which needs to be replaced. The river itself is very low. And the canals?

One farmer came in to the pump station Monday morning to talk about his canals. He said they are overgrown and need clearing, or the water will have nowhere to go. He’s asked the government of Iraq for help with no answer. He needs a few thousand dollars to rent a backhoe. The captain I was with didn’t have the authority to start a canal cleaning project. The farmer left with no answers.