press releases
USAID Restores Clean Drinking Water For 70,000 In Mansehra And Battagram
04/10/2006
Islamabad - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded a $2 million program to provide safe drinking water for nearly 70,000 residents of Mansehra and Battagram Districts in Northwest Frontier Province. USAID-funded partner International Medical Corps (IMC) is implementing the two-pronged program that rehabilitates water systems and promotes personal hygiene in more than 130 villages. The program is aimed at improving living conditions and reducing the risk of disease.
As part of the program, work teams of local residents whose families will benefit from access to clean water are repairing or replacing damaged water pipes and have already installed 69,000 feet of new pipe. A skilled plumber, paid 400 rps a day, supervises each work team, whose workers receive the prevailing daily wage of 200 rps.
"Our biggest joy is that we have water. Even if we weren't earning a daily wage, that is enough," said Niaz of Khunda Mittikot village in Mansehra District.
Disease prevention requires both clean water and good hygiene. IMC has arranged for village residents to attend five hours of hygiene training conducted by USAID-trained community members. Villagers also receive hygiene supplies for personal sanitation and plastic containers for the safe storage of drinking water.
Clean water and livelihoods programs are central parts of USAID’s continuing efforts to rebuild earthquake-affected communities. By restoring clean water to villages and helping local residents earn cash near their homes, this USAID program encourages the timely return of residents from emergency relief camps and improves the quality of life of quake survivors who chose to in their earthquake damaged communities.
The Oct. 8 earthquake significantly damaged water and sanitation systems across five districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. About 75 percent of all water systems in villages were gravity-fed, so that water from springs was stored in tanks and carried to villages through a simple piped system. The earthquake damaged these reservoirs and pipes while mudslides buried the springs themselves. This forced villagers to walk long distances to streams and rivers for water and created considerable risk for the spread of disease and the contamination of existing water sources.
"Without this water, these people would have either moved somewhere else or died," said Hakim Khan, a member of the Upper Mittikot village development council.
The United States, through USAID, is providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth. In addition, the United States has pledged a total of $510 million in earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts to assist the people of Pakistan and to support Pakistani government relief and reconstruction efforts.