LIFE Partners with Veterans for Peace to Provide Clean Drinking Water to Civilians in Iraq


Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), an American non-profit humanitarian relief organization based in Southfield Michigan, as part of its ongoing efforts to alleviate human suffering, and in partnership with Veterans for Peace (VFW), an American non-governmental organization based in St. Louis, Missouri, completed a major rehabilitation project for a water plant in southern Iraq, providing clean drinking water for thousands of residents.

LIFE rehabilitated and put into full production, the water treatment plant in Hamdan Jessir, in the Abu Al-Khassib district of Basra. The project including installing new tanks, chlorine unit filters, electric pumps, and other equipment and accessories in a thorough overhaul of the plant.

Although the Hamdan Jessir water treatment plant was initially designed as a Water Treatment Unit to provide safe drinking water, it however had been damaged and neglected as a result of conflict and many years of sanctions, and instead simply functioned as a dilapidated pumping station, providing low-pressure unsafe water, and contributing to the spread of water-born diseases, which the local residents have been suffering from in the last few years.

After the equipment was installed and activated, the connecting underground pipes were flushed of the old contaminated water. The plant was then put officially in full production by the local Water Directorate, and began pumping high-pressure clean drinking water to thousands of local inhabitants. The rehabilitation project increased both the quality and quantity of water being supplied to the local residents.

Commenting on the cooperation with Veterans for Peace (VFP), Dr. Mujahid Al-Fayadh, the President of LIFE said, "we are very proud of our partnership with Veterans for Peace." He added that "LIFE and VFW have been working together for the last several years on many projects to help provide clean drinking water to civilian neighborhoods in Iraq, in an effort to help eradicate the water-born diseases."