390 days turned into 14 years… A 50 billion dinar water project in Diyala is still awaiting operation
390 days turned into 14 years… A 50 billion dinar water project in Diyala is still awaiting operation
2026-07-24
Shafaq News – Diyala
The director of the New Shat district in Diyala Governorate, Talib al-Khazraji, confirmed on Friday that the district’s water project has been stalled for 14 years, even though its original implementation period does not exceed 390 days, calling for its completion and operation to end the water scarcity crisis that various areas are suffering from.
Al-Khazraji told Shafaq News Agency that the New Shat water project was referred in 2012 to a French company, and it was supposed to be completed within 390 days, but the project faced field and technical problems that prevented its completion, before the General Company of Al-Faw took over to complete the work in recent years.
He added that the total cost of the project is about 50 billion dinars, of which more than 90% has been spent, yet it has not entered service yet, indicating that the completion rate had reached 90% during the past year, and has now risen to only 93%, which reflects a clear slowness in completing the remaining stages.
Al-Khazraji pointed out that the basic design of the project was to produce 4,000 cubic meters of water per hour, but its capacity was reduced to 2,000 cubic meters per hour, noting that the project is intended to secure drinking water for more than 70,000 people in the New Shat district and parts of the Habbab district.
He explained that the project was not officially handed over to the Water Department because it was not fully completed, and the implementing company did not fulfill all the operational requirements, which prevented it from entering service despite more than a decade having passed since its implementation began.
The director of the New Shat district called on the concerned authorities to expedite the resolution of the file, complete the remaining work, and hand over the project to the Water Department, in preparation for its operation and pumping water to the areas suffering from water scarcity, and to end the suffering of thousands of citizens who have been waiting for this project for years.
shafaq.com
