Qatar Charity (QC) has signed a co-operation and partnership agreement with the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Turkey, to provide emergency water and sanitation services for squatter camps and health facilities in Idlib and Aleppo, in Syria.

The agreement, which comes to implement Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects at a cost of more than QR1mn, is expected to benefit 58,380 people.

Under the agreement, the OCHA will fund the larger part of the project, while Qatar Charity will fund the other part.

Qatar Charity will also implement, monitor, and periodically follow up the project over seven months through its office in Turkey, as well as, its field teams.

The project, which is implemented in two parts, includes nine different activities.

The first part of the project targets 21 squatter camps in Idlib and Aleppo with supplying safe drinking water, providing 25 IDP camps with 2000-liter water tanks, and repairing 100 toilets and 60 water points. It also includes raising health awareness in camps to reduce the outbreak of diseases and epidemics, particularly the coronavirus (Covid-19). These activities will continue for 3 months and benefit 13,380 people.

However, the second part of the project, which is carried out in medical centres located in eight IDP cams, includes providing water to the centres, installing water reservoirs, repairing toilets and water points.

Besides, it involves raising awareness among health workers to deal with diseases and epidemics that may outbreak in the camps.

These activities will continue for seven months to benefit approximately 45,000 people.

Director of the Regional Office of Qatar Charity in Turkey, Mohamed Wahi, said that the project will play a vital role in easing the hardship of the internally displaced, stressing the importance of cooperation and coordination between Qatar Charity and various UN agencies and international organisations on humanitarian issues in Turkey.

He also noted that these agreements reflect Qatar Charity’s eagerness to respond to humanitarian needs according to the priorities recommended by relevant clusters.

Engineer Khaled al-Hussein, who is the water and sanitation officer in Turkey, said that Qatar Charity attached great importance to water projects, as it rehabilitated 23 drinking water plants in northern Syria by providing fuel and equipment necessary to be operated.

He added that Qatar Charity is currently working on a separate project to deliver 15,000 water tanks to the IDP camps, provide 18 pumping stations with fuel for three months, and distribute 5,500 personal hygiene kits and 300 home water tanks with a capacity of 1,000 liters.

He noted that Qatar Charity would continue providing three water stations in Azaz, a city in Syria, with fuel for 6 months.


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