Beyond2020 secures vital solar-powered water solutions for 20,000 rural Sudanese

Beyond2020 secures vital solar-powered water solutions for 20,000 rural Sudanese

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Beyond2020, the UAE-driven humanitarian initiative launched by the Zayed Sustainability Prize and its partners, has improved safe water access for 20,000 people in the rural villages of Tawait and Tahger in East Sudan. Two mini solar-powered water yards – a groundwater pumping system that supplies 20 litres of water per day per person – have been installed in the villages to enhance water accessibility, improve hygiene, and promote better health.

The Beyond2020 deployment in Sudan was implemented by the 2017 Zayed Sustainability Prize winner Practical Action, a UK-based non-profit organisation that works with communities to develop solutions to address the challenges they face through creative and sustainable solutions.

Both villages are in the densely populated Telkuk District of the Kassala State. The people of Telkuk are nomadic pastoralists who raise livestock and move seasonally through vast areas in search of grazing and water supply. Consecutive years of drought and a degrading environment have affected these vulnerable groups, who faced major livestock losses and threats to their traditional way of life. This has reduced the seasonal migration of livestock to shorter distance grazing while also impacting the population’s rain-dependent agricultural cultivation due to their inability to move around.

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