CAIRO - Starting this month, about 680 artesian wells will be dug in 11 regions across Somalia at a cost of $82 million, said Atta Elmanan Bakhit, the Assistant Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC). "This is a first step in our recovery programme for Somalia," Bakhit added yesterday at a conference held in Cairo entitled ‘Water for life', organised by the OIC, the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations, with a membership of 57 states spread over four continents. He explained that there are three big organisations playing a great role in this project: a Saudi Arabian organisation which pledges to build 150 artesian wells; an NGO called Islamic Relief, which pledges to build 80; and a Sudanese organisation which pledges to build 93. Meanwhile, an organisation from Gaza, which has contributed $60,000, pledges to build one artesian well, while other organisations will also contribute. Yesterday's conference came following a meeting on early recovery needs for Somalia, jointly organised by the OIC and the Islamic Forum in Nairobi on 26-27 September, which brought together UN agencies, international humanitarian organisations, Islamic international NGOs and local NGOs from Somalia and Kenya. The OIC has prepared a feasibility study for 218 boreholes throughout Somalia, with a total budget of about $36 million, in order to help alleviate the effects of the famine and to enhance resilience to repeated acute droughts in Somalia. The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation was delighted that there were pledges made to build so many wells at yesterday's meeting, which was attended by representatives from the regional and international organisations working with the OIC. Bakhit said that the OIC has already distributed 25,000 tons of food and other services in Somalia, as well as building 120 clinics serving 300 refugee camps. "In the past 20 years, the international community has given $55 billion to Somalia. This should have been enough to develop the country, but where has the money gone?" he wondered. "We as Islamic organisations must learn from this lesson. We must never just use donated money to feed the starving Somalis, as we must also think of their future and teaching them how to do projects for themselves," he added. According to him, they face challenges like the lack of security, but "by working together, we can overcome the challenges". Bakhit added that the OIC talked with armed Islamic movements in the south and this has done much to help relief to reach the area. According to UN statistics for 2010, there are 9.36 million people living in Somalia, 65 per cent of them in rural areas. Most of them are farmers who depend on wells for their livelihood. "We need water. Thousands of people and hundreds of cattle have died. Many people have left their homes because there's no water," Shoeib, a co-ordinator for the NGOs in Somalia, said tearfully. "Things have become so desperate that a box of water in some places sells for at least $1,000. Solving this problem will make a huge difference. We have to be practical; we need to urgently build the wells.”
