RIYADH: Saudi aid officials agreed on a deal to dig 241 surface wells in Niger to help provide water for around 629,000 people. The accord was signed in Riyadh by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center’s assistant general supervisor for operations and programs, Ahmed bin Ali Al-Beez. Abdullah Al-Muallem, director of KSrelief’s health and environmental aid department, said that the wells project involved fitting manual pumps that could reach depths of 20 to 30 meters as part of an initiative to provide water that was safe for drinking and other uses. He added that preventing diseases caused by polluted water helped toward stabilizing communities while improving supplies for agriculture and livestock farming would boost Niger’s economic development.