Iraq invites NESPAK for irrigation project

Company has already worked on projects in the Gulf country.

LAHORE: Apparently encouraged by past successes of the National Engineering Services of Pakistan, the Ministry of Water Resources of Iraq has approached the engineering company, inviting it to participate in an irrigation project.

The project called East Gharaf will provide sustainable irrigation and drainage facilities for about 390,000 acres of land in Nassiriya and Kut Governorates, the area between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

According to a press release, state-owned Nespak had worked on a number of irrigation projects in Iraq in early 1980s, such as the Euphrates East Drains project, Saddam Dam project, North Jazira Irrigation and Drainage project, and Rumaitha Irrigation and Drainage project.

Nespak, which is still registered with Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources, was already considering entering Iraq before the invitation came.

Recently, the company has also been awarded contracts in other countries. These included three multi-purpose dam projects and two irrigation and agriculture projects in Afghanistan and a fisheries and grain silos project in Yemen.

At home too, the company is engaged in development work in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and other areas.

Nespak has staff strength of 4,000 with over 500 professionals with MS and PhD degrees as well as foreign-qualified engineers. In 1998, it was ranked one of the top 200 design firms of the world by the Engineering News Record (ENR) magazine of the US.

Its revenues have more than doubled over the past four years, with nearly 30% of them coming from overseas projects in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Afghanistan, Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2012.