Infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza has suffered from decades of conflict and neglect. With the assistance of USAID funding, IRD will contribute to improving the lives of Palestinians by repairing and constructing key roads, schools, and water systems. In August 2008, IRD was one of four organizations awarded a five-year, $300 million Infrastructure Needs Program Indefinite Quantity Contract (INP IQC) for construction activities in the West Bank and Gaza; IRD was the only non-profit organization to be awarded this IQC. In September, USAID awarded five task orders to IRD under this IQC, valued at over $30 million. IRD will be building/rehabilitating five roads, three schools, and a water system, spread over the Northern and Southern regions of the West Bank.

Roads - Many of the roads in the West Bank are either badly deteriorated asphalt or gravel with no safety features like guard rails or shoulders. Over approximately eight months, IRD will improve more than 20 kilometers of these roads by excavating major segments, paving, and installing appropriate safety features to the highest quality and safety specifications. The roads are located across the West Bank, in Tulkarem city, Jenin and Nablus districts and are valued at over $17.8 million.

Schools - Over an estimated 10 month period, IRD will construct three new schools—two elementary and one secondary—for boys in the southern portion of the West Bank. Each school will have 17 or 18 classrooms, so hundreds of children will have a clean, modern place to learn once the $6.8 million project is completed.

Water - The $6.1 million Bureen Water System project will bring clean water to marginalized villages in Nablus district. IRD will construct an internal 22 kilometer steel pipe water network, a 300 m3 concrete circular water reservoir, a booster pump station, and over four kilometers of steel pipe connecting the new network to the existing main Nablus transmission main.

• photos
• |
• videos