Buenos Aires and its suburbs have only three waste-water treatment plants for 10m residents, and often suffer flash floods that drench entire avenues.

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Nafa Kalaf Al Janabie, an Iraqi-American praised by Mr Powell, is the president of Detroit Contracting, a waste-water treatment company that recently opened an office in Baghdad, where it hopes to benefit from American and United Nations contracts.

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Because the company is a leader in its field of water and waste-water treatment in China, it has enjoyed access to bank financing in the past, and has even been able to raise capital in the United States by selling its shares on NASDAQ.

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