Islamic Relief (IR) Lebanon has signed a five hundred thousand Euro funding agreement with UNICEF in order to benefit Palestinian refugees living in the Nahr Al Bared camp.

The agreement - which is the third such partnership between IR Lebanon and the UN agency - will provide funds of €555,013 to be used for an environmental water and sanitation project to be implemented at the Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

“This agreement reflects the commitment of UNICEF to relieve people who are in need; it also reflects the confidence international agencies have in IR Lebanon and its capacity in handling humanitarian operations,” said Khaled Arab, IR’s country representative in Lebanon.

“I feel that the agreement will add much relief to the beneficiaries lives. It will enable them to have enough safe water, to live in a clean, safe environment and to educate and raise their children in hygienic and safe places. All this as well as the social impact will prove to them that international agencies are with them and trying to make their lives easier as much as they can,” he added.

Arab discussed the extensive damage caused to internal and external water connections and water and sanitation infrastructures by the recent conflict.

“The economic situation of the people in the targeted area does not enable them to carry out the necessary restoration; therefore the intervention of humanitarian agencies is vital,” he said.

In 2007 IR Lebanon received UNICEF funding for the rehabilitation of nine reservoirs, the disinfecting of 45 school reservoirs, the rehabilitation of sanitary facilities in 17 schools and the construction of an elevated reservoir in south Lebanon . The two organisations also came together to offer support to Internally Displaced Persons from Nahr Al Bared in the immediate aftermath of the conflict which broke out there in May 2007.

The Nahr Al Bared camp was established in 1949 and provides shelter to around 30,000 displaced Palestinian refugees.