Baghdad Municipality announced that it had signed a contract with two Italian companies to prepare designs and consulting studies for the implementation of the 26-km-long Police Canal sewer line project. A statement from Baghdad Municipality stated: 'The Director General of the Baghdad Sewerage Department signed the contract with the two Italian companies in the presence of the Undersecretary of Baghdad Municipality for Technical Affairs, Ali Hassan Lafta, the representative of the Italian Consulate, and representatives of the two companies, to begin preparing designs and advisory studies for the strategic line project to transport wastewater as an alternative to the Police Canal.' It added, "The new line will be 26 km long and at depths from 2 to 5 meters, with the implementation of a huge lifting station and a processing unit with a capacity of 300,000 m3 per day." The statement pointed out that "this project is among the strategic projects within the framework of the government program of the Prime Mini ster, who directed to including it for implementation after many years in which it was parked on the shelves, and due to the need of the capital to implement it in a way that serves the areas east of the canal and the areas of Rusafa side, and it is considered the largest new strategic project in the capital, Baghdad." Source: National Iraqi News Agency