Africa accounts for almost 9% of the world’s freshwater resources, according to a UN report, but the situation is gloomy for millions on the continent on World Water Day, which is marked on Monday. Building water wells is the fastest way to deal with water scarcity problems, even if it is temporary, and Turkish charities boast of leading efforts to this end. From the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) to doctors around the world, charities facilitate access to water for poor communities on the continent.
Although global warming is still a threat to water resources worldwide, Africa is already struggling with a chronic water problem. After Australia, it is “the driest continent” in the world, despite the presence of bodies of water such as the Congo, Zambezi, Niger and the Nile and Victoria. Forecasts from the UN show that the population on the continent will reach 2 billion by 2050, but then half of the fields suitable for cultivation will disappear due to water shortages.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where about 680 million people live, only 60% of the population has access to clean water resources. The inland regions of Senegal on the Atlantic coast are particularly vulnerable. The Turkish Red Crescent is preparing to reveal a large water well in the village of Keur Bakary Sarr near the city of Thies in Senegal later this month. Abdullah Kaya, head of the Turkish Red Crescent delegation in Senegal, said the well would address the water needs of about 4,000 people living in 10 villages around Keur Bakary Sarr. Kaya said factories near the villages polluted existing water wells in the area and hindered access to clean water. Only a few wells remain in remote areas and the locals either walk for miles or carry water via horse-drawn carriages to their villages. Joining forces with the Senegalese Red Cross, the Turkish Red Crescent decided to build a well for villages that will generate their energy from solar panels. “Solar-powered wells can store 12 tons of water in three to four hours and are equipped with several taps. The source will be available for at least ten years, he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday. The charity also trains locals in how to maintain the wells and will also build fountains in villages to save locals from traveling to the well to get water.
The Red Crescent is also building another spring in Buburel, a village near Senegal’s Touba, and that spring will provide water for about 10,000 people. Last year, the charity built 27 water wells in Uganda, Senegal, Chad, Niger and Somalia and this year it plans to build 22 more, of which 10 in Senegal.
“We check the wells regularly and try to keep them as long as possible. When we come here we are welcomed by smiling people. It makes us happy to see people with that joy on their faces. We are grateful to our donors for making this happen, says Kaya.
The new source will be a relief for Khadija Hadi, a local in Keur Bakary Sarr who laments sleepless nights in search of water. “I need water the most to do the dishes, to cook and to clean. I had to travel every night by horse-drawn carriage to fetch water from wells in other villages so that there would be no queue. You still have to wait for hours and I usually return home in the morning. I was so happy when I heard that the Turks would build a well here, she told AA.
Yeryüzü Doktorları (Doctors Worldwide Turkey) is another charity-building water well in Africa. It also provides access to clean water for communities in Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Over the past eight years, it has funded the construction of 398 water wells in these two countries, as well as in Chad, Cameroon, Kenya, Congo, Niger, Somalia and Tanzania. Their water wells provided access to water for more than 232,000 people. The charity says about 485,000 people die each year after drinking polluted water each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and polluted water kills more children than those killed in conflicts. The charity, whose main mission focuses on medical care, began building wells in 2013. Mert Özleyen, a charity official, said clean water was important because contaminated water leads to diseases from diarrhea to cholera and typhoid, a leading cause of death, especially among children under 5 years.
“We work to ensure access to water for communities deprived of it. We also witness how people fight for water. For example, when we visited a village in Afghanistan in Baghlan to build a well, we saw people walking for miles just for a bucket of water. Their only water source was a pool where rainwater was mixed with underground water and they had to wait for hours before mud in the water dissolved, Özleyen said. “But the water was still not clean and people often got sick. The spring we built in that village saved them from a chore that took hours and spared them from shattered hopes they had when there was no rain. The most important thing is that they are not as sick as they were before, he said.
IDEA Universal based in Istanbul helped 168,000 people access water in Africa. The association’s founder, Hayri Dağlı, told AA on Monday that they, along with wells, also set up 85 “smart villages” in poor countries that use sustainable energy technology and village irrigation systems. “We use solar-powered sources whose state can be tracked by satellite technology instead of traditional, manually activated sources. We draw water from a depth of 150 meters (490 feet) to the surface and install fountains outside each home in villages for easy access to water. We only ask them to create a pool fund with a small amount of money, equivalent to about 0.5 TL, for each bucket and so they can keep the wells even if we can not help them. So the wells never run out, he said.
“When we tell people in these villages that we are from Turkey, you can see how we are welcomed very differently from people from other countries. Everyone in these villages knows how strong the ties between Africa and Turkey are. They know that we help them without asking for anything in return. We only ask them for their prayers, Dağlı said.
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