Using a purifying agent produced by a small Japanese company, an
international agency is making water potable for internally displaced
people in Mogadishu, the capital of war-ravaged Somalia — often
described as a "failed state."
Made by Osaka-based Nippon
Poly-Glu Co., the agent has helped lower the incidence of illnesses and
diarrhea among children of Somalis who fled their hometowns to escape
famine and civil war, local people say.
At a camp teeming with ramshackle tents in
Mogadishu, where women and children fill plastic bottles at a water
purifying tank, an aid worker shows a small bag. The white powder it
contains, the worker says, is used with chlorine to clean the water.
A key ingredient of the powder is polyglutamic
acid, the sticky substance of "natto" fermented soybeans. According to
Nippon Poly-Glu, it helps quicken the coagulation of impurities in
water.
It is not the first time that Nippon
Poly-Glu, with a small workforce of about 30, has engaged in
humanitarian aid outside Japan. The company has been helping other
developing countries where clean water is scarce.
Learning about the company's activities, Chiaki
Ito, an official of the International Organization for Migration who is
in charge of hygiene in Somalia, asked the company to let it use the
agent.
With the support of the Japan International
Cooperation Agency, the IOM began providing water cleansed with the
agent to some 5,000 internally displaced people in Mogadishu in January.
The aid will continue until next year as the
Japanese government has since offered $2 million in official development
assistance to fund the project.
Poor sanitation has led to outbreaks of
cholera at camps in Mogadishu, which house, according to United Nations
estimates, nearly 200,000 internally displaced people. Many people fled
the southern part of the country last year due to famine and headed for
the capital seeking food and water.
Due to the use of the Japanese-made purifying
agent, the incidence of diarrhea and other diseases among those at the
camp who used to drink well water has decreased, says Hibaq Ahmed Hashi,
leader of the refugee camp where the IOM provides drinking water.
Guards are posted around the clock to protect
the water purification tank at the camp due to poor security in the
capital even after Islamic extremists left the city.
"We intend to figure out a way to continue the supply of clean water," said IOM's Ito.
Kanetoshi Oda, chairman of Nippon Poly-Glu,
said he wants to continue helping internally displaced people in
Somalia, who live in desperate conditions.
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