World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Snapping a picture of a little boy carrying water cannisters on a donkey cart is high on the list of most tourists in Kyrgyzstan. However, for many residents of this small high mountainous country this picture is a reminder of arduous daily journeys to fetch water.

For Saadat-eje is one of 9,000 residents in Kerme-Too, a small southern Kyrgyz village. For most residents, not a single day goes by without an exhausting walk to get water. The decades-old Soviet era water pond was carved out of the ground by hand and has never been rehabilitated.

This is the only place where Saadat-eje can get water to cover all her household’s basic needs. In order to reach the water hole she has to take a dangerous path cutout in the clay pond banks. Saadat-eje she has been repeating this journey three or four times a day for as long as she can remember.

Constructiing water reservoirs to secure sufficient water stock was beyond the means Kerme-Too's residents. WFP and the German Government's development agency (GIZ) stepped in to support the construction of three concrete water reservoirs. Each reservoir has the capacity to store a two-week water stock for 2,000 people.

With GIZ supplying construction materials and technical expertise, WFP ensured that the most food insecure families were able to volunteer their labour in return for food assistance. The reservoirs will be large enough to store a two-week water stock for 6,000 people.

In Kerme-Too, 25 volunteers from the poorest households in the village participated in a two-month project constructing three water reservoirs. In return for their work, they are receiving 200 kg of high quality wheat flour and vegetable oil enriched with essential vitamins and micronutrients; significant and costly food staples for any poor household.