PRESS RELEASE DACAAR provides safe water

09. august 2011

DACAAR provides safe water for more than 21,700 Afghans with funds from ECHO

DACAAR’s project “Provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education to returnees, IDPs and vulnerable host communities in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces”, will improve the lives of over 21,700 Afghans in eastern Afghanistan in eight districts of Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. The 896,700 Euro project funded by the European Commission’s office of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) began implementation in June 2011 and activities will continue until the end of May 2012 for 12 months.

DACAAR’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene Programme (WASHP) focuses activities on provision of safe water and hygiene education. During the project implementation, DACAAR will install 155 water points, 465 latrines will be constructed and 3,100 hygiene kits will be distributed. Additionally, hygiene education messages will be broadcasted via local radios.

DACAAR has a long history of working with ECHO to provide much needed humanitarian relief to Afghan returnees, IDPs and host populations throughout the country. Since 2002, more than five million Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran and access to basic needs, such as food, water and shelter, are a returnees’ first priority on return to Afghanistan.

Through the provision of safe water with ECHO funds, DACAAR is supporting the sustainable reintegration of Afghan returnees. Host community members will benefit as the strain put on already limited community resources by high rates of return will be mitigated.

For further information, please contact:

Public Information Officer
Sayed Abdullah Behzad
Tel.: +93 (0) 797 011 013
E-mail: abdullah@dacaar.org