PAKTYA - The provincial department responsible for providing drinking water to the people in south-eastern Afghan province of Paktya has completed a drinking water project for returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) recently, with assistance from the United Nations refugee agency.

The project aimed to supply safe drinking water to hundreds of families, a majority of them having returned from Pakistan, Iran and other counties after living refugee life there. With the completion of the project, it can generate 1,500 cubic metres of clean drinking water in an hour.

The Paktya provincial director at the Water Supply Department, Yari, highlighted that the project is “a great humanitarian assistance” and is very useful for improving health of thousands of people.

An official with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Khan Mohammad Sultani, said the UN agency dug four wells, each of them being 120 metres deep and installed six-inch submersible pipes. These wells have been connected with a 2,000-cubic metre water reservoir constructed by the US Agency for International Development that provides potable water to 1,500 families at, said Mr. Sultani.

A beneficiary, Chaman Khan, said that having potable water was an urgent need of the local residents.

Another beneficiary, Mohammad Rahim, said that the local had to walk long distance, sometimes on the back of donkeys, to fetch water.

The UNHCR office for Afghanistan’s south-eastern region also said it completed community-based water supply projects for 3,000 returnees in 2012 in the Robat returnees’ settlement, located eight kilometres away from the Paktya provincial capital, Gardez City.