World Water Day: 7 million beneficiaries of Qatar Charity’s water projects in a year

On World Water Day 2021, Qatar Charity celebrates its water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) achievements accomplished in many countries of the world, as its WASH efforts were welcomed and appreciated by the UN organizations confirming its significant contribution to providing clean water around the world.Qatar Charity’s WASH projects, implemented through its offices and field teams or in cooperation with its local and international partners played an important role in limiting the spread of diseases and epidemics, and providing safe drinking water to the displaced living in camps.Valuing Water‘Valuing Water’ is the theme of World Water Day 2021, which is an annual UN observance a day celebrated to highlight the importance of freshwater, raises awareness of the global water crisis, support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.As the theme of the World Water Day 2021 emphasizes the tremendous value of water in our lives, health, education, and economy, we must not water and manage this limited resource properly because no one can live without it. Affected by Water CrisisAccording to UN reports, 2.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water services, and 1 in 10 people in the world suffers from water scarcity.The water crisis affects women disproportionately as they are often responsible for fetching water, which takes time away from work, school, and caring for a family. The lack of water and sanitation locks women in a cycle of poverty. Besides, children are responsible for bringing water for their families, which causes them to move away from school and find no time to play.Approximately 1 million people die annually from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases, and every 2 minutes, a child dies from a water-related disease.“Time spent gathering water or seeking safe sanitation accounts for billions in lost economic opportunities. $260 billion is lost eachyear globally due to lack of basic water and sanitation,” according to Water.org, a nonprofit organization.Qatar Charity’s 2020 AchievementsThe WASH sector is one of Qatar Charity’s main areas of work. It seeks to help communities in need obtain clean water throughout the year, bringing the safe water facilities to its beneficiaries' doorstep or within their reach to protect them from water-related diseases. Internationally, from January 2020 to February 2021, Qatar Charity has implemented more than 12,000 water projects in 23 countries around the world, benefiting nearly 7 million people.Domestically, 358 water projects have been implemented, benefiting nearly 70,000 people. For instance, In Bangladesh, 400 projects have been implemented, at the cost of almost 15 million Qatari riyals, benefiting more than two million people. In Pakistan, approximately 2,000 water projects have been implemented, at the cost of about 10 million Qatari riyals, benefiting more than 363,000 people.PartnershipsQatar Charity has been keen to provide safe drinking water in Pakistan, where it has implemented hand pumps projects in Sindh and Baluchistan, in addition to providing water tanks. It also installed water coolers in schools and government offices in Tando Muhammad Khan District. These projects are implemented in coordination with the official authorities of the different provinces.Qatar Charity completed the implementation of a long-term WASH project in Pakistan, in partnership with UNICEF. UNICEF water experts appreciated the role of Qatar Charity in providing safe drinking water, as Ms. Sabahat Umbrian, UNICEF water expert said that Qatar Charity had implemented a good-quality project. WASH Services for the DisplacedQatar The charity has implemented a QAR 1 million WASH project, which is the latest one, in northern Syria in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to provide emergency WASH services in squatter camps and health facilities. Eng. Khaled Al-Hussein, WASH, the officer in Qatar Charity’s Turkey office, said that during the past four years, Qatar Charity has implemented several projects, such as water station operation, water network expansion, water tank distribution in the camps, to support the water sector in northern Syria. He added that work is currently underway to launch an integrated response project for the displaced and host communities to provide WASH services for them for 7 million Qatari riyals.