The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Rural Water Authorities have completed a joint one-year water programme to improve access to drinking water for Iraqi refugees and Syrian residents of Jeremana and Sayeda Zeinab.

"The completed project will have a significant impact on daily life in those neighbourhoods, whose population includes Iraqis who have suffered the consequences of war as well as Syrian residents," said Jean-Jacques Frésard, the ICRC's head of delegation in Syria.

The project had two main aims. The first was to improve the quantity and quality of drinking water supplied to 28,000 pupils in 29 public schools. The second was to boost the production of drinking water by 5.5 million litres per day so as to increase water supplies in Sayeda Zeinab by 50% over last year's levels (an increase of more than 90% during the summer). This involved drilling 10 new boreholes up to 350 meters deep and to fully equip them with 10 pumps, seven generators, 12 chlorination sets, a 3.1-km pipeline and four pump houses.

The completed project was inaugurated on 27 November at the compound of the Rural Water Authorities, in Sayeda Zeinab, under the patronage of Omar Al Ghalawanji, minister of construction and habitat. The sustainability and any future expansion of the project will be handled by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.