Turkish aid agency unveils clean water project in Sudan

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is helping poor communities in Sudan's southeastern Sennar State by helping to purify water from the Nile River.

According to its official website, the aid agency has recently completed a landmark water-purification project aimed at providing poor villages in Sennar State with potable water.

As part of the project, TIKA has donated three kilometers of water pipeline, six 40-ton water tanks, several laundry rooms and water filling units and an electric pump and pumping station to the local Sudanese authorities.

A Tuesday inauguration ceremony in Sennar State was attended by Sennar Governor Mohammad Mahi Aldu, District Governor Abu Algasim Fadlallah and TIKA Sudan Coordinator Celalettin Gungenci, along with a number of private citizens.

The governor used the occasion to thank TIKA for its ongoing efforts to help poor Sudanese communities, especially in terms of water purification.

Gungenci, for his part, said the clean water project was only one of several humanitarian initiatives that the Turkish aid agency was currently pursuing in Sudan.

Many people in poverty-stricken Sudan suffer from a chronic lack of clean drinking water. This is due to a range of factors, including harsh geographical conditions, long periods of drought, and insufficient or antiquated infrastructure, especially in rural parts of the country.

TIKA has a long history of carrying out aid projects in Africa. These include numerous clean water initiatives in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, West Africa and Somalia, as well as Sudan.

*Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this report from Ankara.