25 January 2021. Ingil city. UN-Habitat has been supporting the Afghan Government and local communities to implement projects to support the resilience of urban residents to the Covid-19 pandemic and its secondary impacts in 10 Afghan cities. In the city of Ingil, UN-Habitat has supported residents in the 3^rd neighborhood in the 3^Rd district, where approximately 3,500 residents reside, to improve access to clean drinking water.

The 72 years old resident of Ingil city is using the hand pump provided by UN-Habitat, Covid-19 prevention project.

This neighborhood was identified as one of the most vulnerable through a city-wide rapid urban vulnerability assessment and was therefore provided a block grant for a priority project.  Through a participatory project selection process, it was found that the highest priority of residents was to improve access to water given access to household or drinking was inadequate and resident, therefore, lacked sanitation capacity.

The residents of Ingil city are happy for having access to clean drinking water

Local community leader Muhammad Usman Azimi said, “previously we did not have access to clean household or drinking water and people were often sick. Our residents are very poor so we could not afford regular water supply, so we are very glad the UN-Habitat and the municipality have helped us by digging deep wells so that we have clean water especially for the vulnerable people.” In total over 85 projects have been implemented to support Covid-19 prevention and resilience in urban areas, with funding from the European Union and Swedish International Development Agency and implemented with the technical support of UN-Habitat.