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Liberia: ICRC launches new projects

02-09-2004 News Release 04/103

MONROVIA (ICRC)- The ICRC has begun new operations in the rural county of River Cess and in southeastern Liberia to repair and upgrade wells, install new hand pumps, build latrines and distribute essential items to needy families during the current rainy season.

" There are tremendous needs and only a handful of humanitarian organizations are working here " , explained Reto Stocker, who heads the ICRC delegation in Liberia. Difficult access has required the opening of new operational bases in Harper, Maryland County, and Cestos, River Cess County.

When the ICRC visited Cestos for the first time in June, only two pumps were working. Since then, five wells have been repaired and three latrine blocks built for both schools and the St Francis Hospital there. The Geneva-based organization is working in conjunction with volunteers from the Liberia National Red Cross Society. Among other things, they are cleaning old wells and installing hand pumps. Ten wells will ultimately be upgraded in Cestos.

Assistance has also been provided to 2,000 families in River Cess County. An initial distribution of relief, including kitchen sets, tools, blankets, sleeping mats, buckets, clothes, mosquito nets and soap, took place at the end of July.

In the southeast, the ICRC has already installed three new pumps in Harper. Altogether it will provide 100 pumps in Maryland County, 100 in Grand Kru County and 50 in River Gee County. Liberian Red Cross volunteers will show the local population how to protect and maintain wells and teach them elementary hygiene, since clean water is the key to avoiding the outbreak of water-born diseases.

Over 2,000 families in River Gee County will also receive tools such as pick axes, hoes, files, shovels, hammers and nails.

During the emergency phase of the conflict last year, the ICRC helped thousands of displaced people and ran the surgical centre at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, which treated hundreds of wounded people. It has now turned to the needs of Liberian returnees and local residents in the rural areas. It hopes that its new operations in River Cess County and in the southeast will help people there recover from 14 years of war.

 For further information, please contact:  

 Jean-Yves Clémenzo, ICRC Monrovia, tel. +377 47 528 089