LUKOIL sponsors water network for villages in Southern Iraq.

Ramadan Beit-Mashaal, Eiz El-Deen Saleem

Not far from LUKOIL’s major West Qurna-2 project in the Basra Province of Southern Iraq lies the small village of Beit Zamel. For years residents had struggled to obtain water for basic hygiene and cooking functions; it had to be brought in by tanker from miles away, and this process was highly expensive.

As the village is a relatively new settlement, the lack of access to water led to extensive empty plots throughout its territory as potential residents remained reluctant to construct new homes there.

No more. In August 2017, LUKOIL – as part of its commitment to the communities in which it operates – completed its Water Pipe Project in Beit Zamel and Turaba (a nearby village).

Its local contractor, chosen via a public tender held by the Eiz El-Deen Saleem Sub District Administration, laid a 1500-meter-long water pipe network through the streets of Beit Zamel and finally connected it to the local network. And all of this took less than a month.

Forty houses in Beit Zamel now have access to water. According to the regional administration, over 100 new houses are now expected to be built in the near future due to the new network.

The contractor also installed an electric water pump at the Turaba water station to pump water to that village.

“We thank LUKOIL very much and appreciate their support,” said Wahab Sabeah Abdul-Zahraa Al-Hijaj, a villager from Beit Zamel. “[Before] we were buying water from a private water tanker and sometimes, if the tanker didn’t come, we couldn’t shower, wash our stuff or clean our houses. Some people had already decided to sell their houses and abandon Beit Zamel until this new network came online.”