An association set up by Turkish students who graduated from schools in Pakistan inaugurated 41 water wells for disadvantaged communities in the country. The Pakistan Alumni Association (PAMDER) coordinates the work with Anda, a Turkish charity, in Muzaffargarh, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Talha Uğurlu, the association’s coordinator in the Asian country, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday that they had already opened 101 wells in the country since January and the overall number of wells they built since 2005 exceeded 2,000 across Pakistan.

Uğurlu said they were also running humanitarian aid and educational projects and were helping Turks studying in Pakistan.

The wells were inaugurated in rural parts of Muzaffargarh, which has an arid climate with temperatures exceeding 40 Celsius degrees (104 Fahrenheit degrees) in the summer. Villages around the city benefit from Turkish aid. Last year, another Turkish charity founded by pilots and flight attendants had drilled 45 water wells for some 40,000 people living in 45 villages, in cooperation with PAMDER.

Turkey maintains close ties with Pakistan, and the country’s charities and public agencies actively work in the country’s various parts. The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) spearheads Turkish relief efforts in the country with 31 projects on health, education, sports and other fields, which were carried out over the past three years. Projects focus on less developed places, including southern Sindh and southwestern Balochistan. In Sindh, TIKA had established water treatment plants for access to clean water for more than 2 million people.