Afghan Dam

In a country where human health is routinely compromised by bad water
Camp Julien's artesian wells, sourced in the surrounding mountains,
are virtually pure right out of the ground.

CANADA SELLING AFGHANS' WATER

"We're very fortunate that this camp is located where it is...
Coors would love to make their beer out of this water".

After the civilized western world, under orders from Big Brother - the United Nations - finished bombing Yugoslavia into the Stone Age and BEFORE we bombed Iraq into the Stone Age, we bombed Afghanistan into the Stone Age. The only thing we DIDN'T bomb was their heroin-growing poppy fields which are run by the international puppet-masters for the war by drugs they inflict on us. See also IN AFGHAN FIELDS

Life is now hell in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq because of the wars inflicted upon them. One of the worst sufferings the people over there are enduring is the lack of water, not only for drinking but for all the other neccessities of life.

As a Canadian I daily feel shame for what is done in our name by our governments and today I feel particularily excrutiating shame for what our government is doing with Afghanistan's water.

The following story describes how our army is under contract to a water corporation to "produce" water from artesian wells under Kabul and sell it to fellow NATO armies for profit. Meanwhile our soldiers are on water rations and drinking de-salinated bottled stuff from the Persion Gulf and the Afghanis aren't even mentioned.

What hell it is to be a part of America, China and Russia in the raping and pillaging of the rest of the world. Here at home we're being destroyed by crime and decadence but at least we still have water, albeit soon it will be metered out like electricity and gas. ~ Jackie Jura

Canadian army selling Afganistan's water
by Stephen Thorne, CBC, Jul 27, 2004
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/040726/w072636.html

France, the country that brought the world Perrier wants to buy glacial well water bottled by the Canadian military in Afghanistan.

France, which popularized "designer" water in the 1970s, says its military in Kabul is spending too much importing H2O from Europe. It is making a bid to buy about 2,000 litres a day from the main Canadian base, Camp Julien. While most of the 30-odd countries serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) import their water from the Persian Gulf, France has been flying its water in from Europe- at a cost of 3.40 Euros a litre (about $5.50 Cdn).

The Canadians, who draw their water from just one of the base's three deep wells, expect bottling costs to plummet and will offer the water to the French for about a fifth or less of what they now are paying. The operation, run by Cancap, a subsidiary of Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, is aiming to produce 9,000 litres a day, just as the 1,600 Canadian troops based at Julien are replaced by a smaller number of Canadians and Europeans. "With the downsizing of Camp Julien and the contingent, it appears we've got more water than what we need," said Maj. Dave Lauckner, the contingent's chief engineer. "It's not really a burden on us because we're producing it anyway. "In the event the French contingent got bigger and we had to sell them more water and had to put on a third shift, we'd have to raise the price accordingly."

The Canadian army's water system in Kabul is unique in the military world and could be the envy of virtually any North American city.

Canadian combat engineers drilled the three 90-metre wells last year, hitting huge aquifers - or underground lakes - that can each yield between 290 and 330 cubic metres a day, so much water, in fact, that 40 per cent is returned to the ground. That's despite the fact that the water is allocated at 100 litres per day per soldier, for drinking, showering, laundry, toilets and cooking. There has been no appreciable drop in the water table since the wells were drilled, said Lauckner. Two other camps - Britain's Camp Souter and the Americans' Camp Phoenix - have had to drill new wells several times over.

And in a country where wells average about 30 metres and human health is routinely compromised by bad water, Camp Julien's artesian wells, sourced in the surrounding mountains, are virtually pure right out of the ground.

Even some ISAF countries are drinking desalinated water out of the Gulf whose purification standards don't come close to those imposed by the Canadians. Julien's standards even exceed their own federal government's. A Cancap technologist tests the water daily; a military preventive medicine technician spot-checks it at all stages, and weekly samples are sent to an independent laboratory in the Persian Gulf. The system worked this spring when contaminants, believed to be detergents, were quickly discovered in one of the settling tanks. A military police investigation has not found the source of what they believe was sabotage.

"We're very fortunate that this camp is located where it is," said Lieut. Dan Doran, contingent engineer operations officer who wrote his thesis on water treatment. "The water is so clean that there is no need to purify it. Fecal coliform, e-coli, stuff like that is non-existent in this water. It's been naturally filtered through the sand and it is incredibly clean."

Added Lauckner: "Coors would love to make their beer out of this water".

Nevertheless, it is thoroughly processed with a unique, Canadian-bred technology system that begins in a settling tank to eliminate sand and then goes though a series of filtration units to take out floating particles. The water's pH levels are then corrected before it goes through a filtration system that works by reverse osmosis, drawing out all other materials, including minerals. It then passes through an ultraviolet disinfection system that kills any micro-organisms. Finally, it is exposed to chlorine to ensure contaminants that might enter the water after it leaves the treatment system are killed. Until used, the water is stored in four 90,000-litre bladders equipped with a recirculation system that keeps it constantly moving so it doesn't stagnate and foster organic growth. From there, the water is piped underground in two distribution systems leading to the bottling plant and about three kilometres through the rest of the camp. French officers inspected the water system and bottling plant last week and, by all accounts, they were impressed.

The Canadians and others at Camp Julien are still drinking the last of the 1.5-litre bottles of commercial spring water produced in the United Arab Emirates, for which they were paying $87,000 US a month ($115,342 Cdn). An equivalent amount of Julien-produced water, which is just starting to appear around the base, should cost a fraction of that. With the changeover, Canadian officers have told their French counterparts they want to wait until things settle down and new camp consumption rates are established before striking a deal, probably in early September. Said Doran: "If we do start selling this water outside the camp, I think it's safe to say that this will be the safest water in Kabul."


Afghan Dam Canada's PM serving his country coffee
(visting Canada's project at Afghan's dam). Edmonton Sun, May 8, 2009
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a surprise visit to Afghanistan yesterday. Harper arrived at the Kandahar Air Field at around 9 a.m. and quickly boarded a helicopter to take a look at the Dahla dam, a major Canadian project in the country worth $50 million. "The dam will allow drinking water to be supplied to nearly all of Kandahar," said Harper.

The prime minister then spoke to Canadian troops before stepping behind the counter at the base's Tim Hortons to serve up coffees. The PM said the arrival of scores of American troops in the region over the next several weeks will help Canada concentrate on certain objectives. "We will be able to focus on the reconstruction and the training of Afghan forces," he said. Harper said there weren't enough soldiers in the area to do that in the last few years. The PM reminded everyone that Canada's goal wasn't to make peace throughout the country, but to train the Afghan forces to do it. Yesterday's stop marked Harper's third visit to Afghanistan since he became prime minister. "I can see progress," he said. "Economic activity has started again in certain areas and many children have returned to school." Harper also announced that Canada will be investing $2 million to help provide a better education to 18,000 Afghan children.

Opium trade booms in "basket case" Afghanistan. Independent, Jul 28, 2004
The opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will be one of the biggest on record, the Foreign Office said yesterday, and it has triggered a flood of heroin on Britain's streets. The revelation will prove highly embarrassing for Tony Blair, who cited cutting the supply of heroin as one of the main reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and WHERE'S THE ENEMY'S ARMY? and IRAQ A MAGICIAN'S TRICK

DEAD IN THE WATER (documentary on water privatization; gov't selling people down river). CBC, Apr 4, 2004. Go to 9.Keeping Masses Down

UK's depleted rivers at water level crisis (new Water Act allows people & companies to sell their unused share). Independent, Nov 30, 2003. Go to 9.Keeping Masses Down

China's 3-Valley-Gorge dam (will cause environmental catastrophe & water will be poison). Independent, May 31, 2003

Iraq's water system destroyed (& Iraqis not allowed to fix). Guardian, May 31, 2003

Water being privatized world-wide (gov'ts selling the river). National Post, Jan 9, 2003

WATER CONTROL and KYOTO'S WATER WIZARDS and WHO IS MAURICE STRONG? (http://iresist.com/cbg/strong.html)

CRESTONE COLORADO (where Strong cashed in on water). RealAudio CBC radio program, Mar 2001
It's in the middle of the middle of nowhere, a thriving spiritual centre perched alongside an insulated mountain valley in central Colorado - the lifework of Canadian Hanne Strong and her Manitou Foundation. Seekers from far and wide come to Crestone to seek enlightenment from lamas, gurus, priests and shamans. Tapestry host Don Hill visited this unusual place with a history of 'lights in the sky,' the continent's largest sand dune, and a huge underground reservoir of water - the focus of spirited political debate in the parched American southwest.

AFGHANISTAN REMEMBERED
...Going downtairs to the lobby and out onto the street I saw that our hotel was a three or four-story structure with a flat roof, something like the hotels one sees in the western movies only made of dried mud instead of wood. I saw a man climbing a ladder to the top of the roof. He had a pole across his shoulders and on each end dangled a large bucket. When he got to the roof he climbed a large cistern and poured water from the buckets into the cistern, then down the ladder he went and off again to fill the buckets from the water source. It dawned on me then that the shower I had enjoyed that morning had been possible from water delivered by the bucketful by manual labour. I've never felt comfortable leaving a tap running since and always try to get in and out of the shower quickly, remembering that in some countries a shower is a hard-earned luxury...

DRUG WAR & PEACE and 35.The Brotherhood

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
HOME PAGE
website: www.orwelltoday.com