HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

A partnership between the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the European Union and the Government of Djibouti is paving the way for at least 25,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable rural residents of the country to gain, for the first time, access clean drinking water close to their homes.

“The water supply programme will help to improve the living conditions of many children and women and to the achievement of priority indicators in line with the Millennium Development Goal related to water and sanitation,” said Aloys Kamuragiye, UNICEF Representative in Djibouti.

Through the venture, the EU will provide UNICEF with 2 million Euros for its water and sanitation programme with the Ministry of Agriculture. The agency will provide technical expertise and contribute an additional 60,000 Euros.

The EU and UNICEF partnership programme aims to install water facilities and strengthen community participation in maintaining the water infrastructure in Djibouti, where, access to safe drinking water is a “daily challenge for the majority of the population living in rural areas,” the agency said in a news release.

UN News is solely responsible for the contents of this article. 3 July 2007 –