People happy after getting potable water on doorstep

BANNU
The octogenarian Abdul Mir is happy to have a hand-pump in the street where he is living. This has provided people potable water at doorstep.
The elderly resident says they had no tube-well or pressure pump within three kilometer radius of his house. Women and children would fetch water for drinking purpose and other needs from a distant locality.
But, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) with the financial support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Early Recovery Preparedness and Response Project (ERPRP), set up the hand-pump right in their street - Akbar Khan Mohallah in Mandan Union Council of the district - to rid them of the great problem permanently.
Akbar Khan Mohallah hosts some eight families of the temporarily displaced people besides the over 20 families of the local residents.
Abdul Mir, who has coloured his beard in red, says that they would face the real difficulty when it rained or have electricity supply suspended.
In both the cases they won’t be able to have water even for drinking or making ablution and cooking.
In rain their muddy street is filled with sludge forcing them to stay indoors, while in case of power outage they would be unable to get water from the tube-well, he says. “But, now we have this hand-pump right in front of our house. Even the minor children can come and take water from it,” he said.
Abdul Mir, hailing from Miranshah, North Waziristan, but he has come to Bannu along with family after the military operation - Zarb-e-Azb - was started there in June, 2014.
Like hundreds of thousands of other displaced tribesmen, he is anxiously waiting for restoration of peace in native area so that he could go back to hometown.
After the influx of displaced tribal people into the district, the UNDP launched ERPRP to share the burden of host families and provide relief to the displaced tribal people.
The project was launched in 40 villages of nine union councils of the district. The services of some non-governmental organizations like SRSP, Participatory Rural Development Society (PRDS) and Initiative for Development and Empowerment Axis (IDEA) to make the project a success.
Some 77 schemes were started under the project that was formally launched in September last year. Almost all these schemes have been completed and both the host and displaced families are taking benefits of it.
The schemes included establishment of pressure pumps and hand pumps, construction of street pavements, rehabilitation of drainage lines and promotion of female embroidery work.
Skill development trainings were also imparted to both guest and host families under the project.