Published: April 12, 2004

NEWS TIP SHEET

The former Interim Minister of Irrigation for Iraq, Eugene Z. Stakhiv, will speak at CU-Boulder April 15 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Duane Physics, room 1B20, on water management resources during 2003 in the war-torn country.

Stakhiv was Iraq's interim Minister of Irrigation from April 2003 to August 2003 and is chief of the planning, policy and special studies division at the Institute for Water Resources at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A reception will follow his talk.

While in Iraq, Stakhiv managed 18,000 employees, 11 state-owned companies and five state commissions. He oversaw responsibility for 10 major dams, 271 pumping stations and the generation of 2,500 megawatts of hydropower providing irrigation water for 9 million acres and delivering water to all the larger municipalities in Iraq.

He also was responsible for reconstruction of 15 looted office buildings in Baghdad and more than 100 district offices, emergency security for and replacement of pumps, generators and dam safety repairs and the restoration of several marsh areas. Stakhiv also organized dam safety assessment teams in Iraq and developed the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers hydrological modeling projects, among other duties.

Stakhiv has a doctorate in water resources systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University and is the author of more than 100 published papers. He has more than 30 years experience in regional and river basin planning, reservoir operations studies, ecosystem restoration studies and climate variability studies from acid mine drainage to the proliferation of exotic zebra mussels in the Great Lakes.

For more information or to set up individual media interviews with Stakhiv, contact Engineering Professor Kenneth Strzepeck at (303) 492-7111 or Jim Scott in the CU-Boulder News Services Office at (303) 492-3114.