EU to fund more water projects

Agreement to support refugee host areas

The European Union (EU) signed an agreement with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on February 13, to improve water facilities in the areas that have been most affected by the Syrian crisis.

The EU is funding the project with a total value of $20.3 million. According to a statement it issued on February 11: “The project aims at providing access for local communities to appropriate quantities of potable water, as well as providing means to preserve its cleanliness.”

UNHCR will be in charge of executing the project through its local partners. The project is made up of three components: The restoration and development of artesian wells to draw as much as possible on natural springs, the construction and restoration of municipal water preservation facilities, and the expansion and restoration of available piping networks. The project will be completed in 30 months.

According to the EU statement, “The Bekaa and North Lebanon currently host around 62 percent of registered Syrian refugees, 90 percent of whom live in rented housing or as guests.”

“Following the January 2014 donor conference in Kuwait the allocation of the European Union and its 28 Member States has reached €2.4 billion in response to the conflict in Syria and its spill-over into neighboring countries – €1 billion through the various instruments of the European Commission and almost €1.4 billion from the 28 EU Member States,” said the statement by the EU. While the bulk of the funds were committed to humanitarian interventions inside Syria, an increasing amount is aimed at alleviating pressure in neighboring countries, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.