Dahuk, Iraq - Soldiers with the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion, Webster, N.Y., currently stationed in Dahuk, Iraq, may have found an alternative way for residents to drink clean water in the village of Bendaway.

A creek running through the small village in northern Iraq is the only natural source of drinking water for the residents. Because there is no filtration system, the water contains pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals used in the heavily agricultural community.

According to John Anderson, who works for a non-governmental organization, Concern for Kids, the effects of tainted water can be deadly.

“This village lost 10 children in June 2003 from drinking sewer water out of the stream, because there was no other water,” Anderson said.

The 401st CA Bn. and NGO are testing a space-aged portable water filtering and purification system that was originally designed for NASA, which models after the space shuttle water recycling system.

“We use the same technology, with a little different configuration,” Anderson said.

The portable water system being tested costs just under $10,000 and can be a short-term solution for the water problem in the village, according to Capt. Steven Hayden, 401st CA Bn.

“There are about 300 villages in northern Iraq that don’t have potable drinking water,” Hayden said. “If you were able to put storage tanks in these villages, next to a creek, someone could come out once a week and fill the tanks up. It would have a phenomenal impact.”