DUBAI // UAE residents are being asked to help provide clean water for Syrian refugees in Jordan through a month-long fund-raising drive.
The Price of Water Campaign aims to help 600,000 registered refugees and about 800,000 people living in Jordan’s northern areas who are not registered with aid organisations.
The campaign is an initiative of Mercy Corps, Red Crescent and Coca-Cola Middle East.
As one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, Jordan is struggling to allocate the important resource, but the arrival of thousands of Syrian refugees is further weighing on the country, said Dina Sabbagh, a Mercy Corps official. She said familial ties between Jordan and Syria were posing long-term challenges to Jordanian authorities in caring for the refugees.
While a person needs an average of 80 litres of water a day to drink, cook and wash with, most refugee camps that house large populations can provide only 30 litres of water to each individual, according to Ms Sabbagh.
Mercy Corps plans to fund schools in northern Jordan that have been hit hard by the lack of water.
Because of intermittent supply, schools, as with most buildings in Jordan, store water in tanks and ration its use.
Although schools in some areas have taken in large numbers of students from refugee families, they have not increased the capacity of their water tanks.
Ms Sabbagh said some schools had been left without water for weeks, particularly overcrowded ones. And they would use money allocated for stationery and other supplies to buy water tanks.
“You can’t wash your hands, the school would not be cleaned every day, water will be preserved for drinking purposes only because this is most important,” she said.
“So they would ration it – no school gardens, no cleanliness, a little bit for bathrooms. It is tough.”
For their part, UAE residents could help such schools install water filtering systems and rainwater storage tanks by donating to the campaign.
As part of the campaign, Coca-Cola’s Arwa brand of bottled water will be available free at participating supermarkets and fast-food restaurants, with customers deciding on the amount they wish to pay. All the proceeds raised will go to the schools.
Sixty-six branches of Burger King across the UAE will be giving away free bottled water for four weeks from August 4, while 10 Choithrams supermarkets in Dubai will hand out water on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Donations can also be made at UAE Red Crescent boxes at 100 locations across the country or online.
People can also text “Arwa” to 6881 to donate Dh10 towards the campaign.
Donations made on Twitter, the social networking site, via @arwa_water, will be matched by Coca-Cola in aiding the campaign.
vtodorova@thenational.ae