Date posted: August 22, 2013

NİHAT POLAT, İSTANBUL

As Turkey continues to help struggling African countries, many Turkish aid foundations are working to resolve Africa’s long-standing water supply problem by digging wells in countries across the continent. So far more than 20 million people in Africa and elsewhere have gained access to clean water thanks to the humanitarian work of Turkish aid foundations.

Drought, a common occurrence in Africa, is one of the main causes of the continent’s chronic shortage of potable water. According to the UN Development Programme, 4,900 children die every day worldwide due sanitation problems and contaminated water.

Through their aid campaigns in African countries, Turkish foundations have dug thousands of wells in Africa.

The aid foundations have said that they have been working on well projects in Africa for many years in a bid to prevent deaths caused by water stress in the region.

A water well takes between three and six months to sink and costs between $3,000 and $80,000, depending on the region and the depth of the well.

So far, the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH) has drilled 2,512 wells in Africa while the Cansuyu Solidarity and Charity Foundation has drilled 695 wells in Asian and African countries. The Turkish foundation Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) has drilled 451 water wells and the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) association has drilled 152. As a result of these efforts, a total of 20 million people in Africa and Asia now have access to clean drinking water.

The İHH has drilled water wells in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kashmir and Kyrgyzstan.

The Cansuyu foundation has drilled wells in Somalia, Niger, Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.

Kimse Yok Mu has drilled wells in Somalia, Niger, Sudan, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Chad and Pakistan, but the foundation’s goal is to drill wells in over 20 African countries.

Donors to these foundations can choose to cover the full expense of a water well or just a part of the cost. Turkish women have been organizing fundraisers to collect money for water projects in Africa.

Source: Today's Zaman , August 21, 2013

Tags: Africa | Humanitarian aid |