Water against war

2009 DAC in cooperation with the Danish newspaper Politiken made a fund raising: 'Vand mod krig' (Water agains war).

During the fund raising campaign nearly 1.00.000 DKK were collected and 30 wells were established with hand- or electric pumps and one solar powered pumo. In each village one person was trained to maintain the new well and pump.

The wells were established in the rural districts Gozarah og Pashtoon Zarghoon in the Herat province - in villages without access to pure drinking water.

Read the editorial about the campaing from Politiken here and subsequent articles by Anders Jerichow here and of Keld Broksøe here.

This is why pure drinking water is important:

Afghanistan is one of the countries with highest child mortality which is due to among other diarrhoea and tuberculosis. The diseases often originates from the fact that the poor rural population does not have access to pure drinking water and must walk for hours to fetch the precious drops.

Often a pond in a village has too many functions: water supply, washing of clothes, bathing and watering the animals. The result is poor hygiene which gives good conditions for spreading of infectious diseases.

Pure drinking water is a central element to improve the health for the Afghans. Pure drinking water is essential for the development of Afghanistan.

The Afghan ministry for rural development has expressed that they are highly satisfied with the quality of the water project which is a positive starting point for the work of the water committee to provide access to pure drinking water for even more Afghans. A good cooperation with the authorities is of central importance if you want to create a sustainable and durable solution.