Doha: Qatar Charity (QC) has started implementing a water and reformation project to serve displaced people coming from Waziristan and locals hosting them in the Bannu District, south Pakistan, near the Durand Line.
About 140,000 people are expected to benefit.
QC’s office in Pakistan will dig 40 wells, equip 10 with electric pumps, provide 40 schools with washbasins and water tanks, build 300 toilets and another 20 for disabled people and 16 power transfer stations.
QC will also maintain 12 water and sewage networks and provide health centres and camps for the displaced people with water tanks.
The one-year project will be implemented in 60 villages covered by three desalination plants: Ismail Khel, Bizan Khel, and Jando Khel. It will fix problems of water supply and toilets in Bannu, which arose because of the inability to secure the basic needs and maintain infrastructure.
It is also hard to secure good drinking water and health facilities as a result of the influx of hundreds of thousands from Waziristan.
The district has a population of 1,000,000, while the number of displaced people coming from Waziristan is 840,000.
About 40 percent of the displaced do not have toilets, forcing them to defecate in the open. As a result, the health of women and girls in particular is at risk, especially during bad weather.
QC has also coordinated with Unicef to organise awareness campaigns at schools and in neighbourhoods. Together, they stage awareness plays and broadcast instructions on the radio. They also organise workshops and train health and education workers. The project has made many beneficiaries feel comfortable. Urfan Khan bin Ahmed Ali, a 25-year-old disabled man, expressed gratitude to QC which built for him a toilet in his backyard. Seven members of his family in Sarmatakali village in Jando Khel also use it. There are 100 families, mostly poor, in Sarmatakali and had to defecate in the open and QC has helped them. QC female social workers also carry out awareness campaigns for women in Sarmatakali. However, they face difficulties, especially when they move from one village to another because of traditions and customs and the small number of literate girls because most drop out of school at an early age.
The Peninsula
