Water and sanitation efforts among displaced Kurdish citizens

cooperated with the U.S. military to provide emergency assistance to displaced Kurds in the mountains of eastern Turkey and Iran. A.I.D. assistance was channeled through the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) within the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the Water and Sanitation for Health Project. The military provided security and also transported food, water, supplies, and people. Because the eastern Turkey mountains are very remote, with few roads, helicopters were often the only means of transport, and flight coordination was difficult due to limited landing areas. U.S. policymakers thus determined that mountain settlements having insufficient water supplies would have to be relocated to an area near Zakhu, Iraq, where basic water and sanitation services could be provided. The first part of the report covers OFDA/DART activities during the early unsettled period of Kurdish displacement. The second part focuses on the design, construction, and utility of facilities within the Zakhu camp. The second part also discusses the process of transferring management responsibility to the PVO community.