Oct 06 2007
Makhmur
Yesterday, I took a couple of my Project Engineers and conducted quality assurance (QA) visits at a few ongoing projects. The first stop on our trip was in the vicinity of Makhmur, a village southeast of Mosul. In this village, we are working on two drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) that will provide clean drinking water to 22 different villages with a total population of about 44,000 people. Once again, the drive to the site was quite an experience. We did a bit of off-road travel. This makes driving much safer with regard to IEDs. However, many of the wadis are not on our maps. So we were forced to backtrack numerous times to find crossing points.
When we finally hit the ground in Makhmur at the first DWTP, the Project Engineers and I went about conducting our QA inspections. Being the OIC and Area Engineer, I’m supposed to know what to look for at these sites. Sometimes I get caught up in all of the hype and forget that I’m really a map-maker (according to Mugs). Although I prefer to think of myself as a Geospatial Engineer. Unfortunately, I don’t have Mugs here to help me stay humble. I guess I got a little carried away on this visit and decided to share my wealth of construction expertise with Don, the Project Engineer for this site.
By the expression on his face, it doesn’t appear that Don is as impressed with what I’m saying as I am!
