MUZAFFARABAD, July 24: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has announced closure of its water supply programme initiated by it in Azad Jammu and Kashmir in response to the October 2005 earthquake.

According to a handout released here on Thursday, the agency had rehabilitated and reconstructed over 40 rural water supply systems, involving rehabilitation and installation of over 600 kilometres of pipeline, in Muzaffarabad district in cooperation with the communities concerned after the devastating earthquake.

In cooperation with the AJK Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), the ICRC had rehabilitated water treatment plants serving the towns of Hattian Bala and Garhi Dupatta in Jhelum valley.

These plants treated the Jhelum River water, providing clean drinking water to a population of 15,000 people in Hattian Bala at a rate of 260 gallons per minute and to 45,000 people in Garhi Dupatta at a rate of 500 gallons per minute, the handout said, adding that the ICRC had also rehabilitated the town water supply system of Chinari.

“Over 100,000 people now have access to clean drinking water in AJK due to the rehabilitation work on water supply systems carried out by the ICRC following the earthquake,” the handout said.

In addition to drinking water supplies, the ICRC had also rehabilitated 15 irrigation channels to enable rural communities to grow more crops and thus improve their nutrition and income.

The handout said the ICRC had handed over the rehabilitated water supply schemes to the communities concerned and the water treatment plants to the PHED. It had also donated pipes and fittings to the department to help it continue provision of water supply services in the towns in district Muzaffarabad.

The ICRC expressed its gratitude to the communities, the PHED and the reconstruction and rehabilitation agencies for their cooperation in this regard.