The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) has inaugurated a water project in the Travnik Municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of the UAE Suqia Initiative, launched by Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to provide clean water to approximately five million people worldwide.

The commissioning of the water project was attended by Salem Al Ameri, head of the ERC in Al Ain, along with the president of the Travnik Municipality and a number of Bosnian officials.

Al Ameri said in a speech during the opening ceremony that the project, which cost US$186,000, would provide water to 1,000 families.

He added that the ERC had implemented the project in a village in the Travnik Municipality based on thorough studies on the need for drinking water in the rural regions.

'The ERC has been working diligently to deliver objectives of the UAE Suqia Initiative in digging wells, provision of water tanks, purification of water for drinking and the provision of solutions to wastage of water,' he said, referring to the impact of the Initiative in improving water supply in arid regions in Africa and Asia.

The president of the Travnik Municipality expressed deep appreciation to the ERC for completing the project in a record 40 days.

The water project, he said, would help villagers to improve their living conditions.

Beneficiaries expressed their profound thanks to the ERC for implementing the project, which they said would end their long suffering to fetch water and bring about a paradigm shift in the development of the area.