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Water prices in Wajid district have skyrocketed making it difficult for the most vulnerable communities to access safe water. Water scarcity has also led to some mortality rate amongst livestock and failed crop production. Water is an essential element for household survival. Many households, usually women and girls, walk long distances to access water, increasing their exposure to risks of sexual and gender-based violence.
Access to clean water contributes to poverty reduction in several ways. It enables the population improve personal and environmental hygiene, which in turn reduces incidence of water-borne diseases. Healthy adults are able to do productive work and improve well-being of their families, thus contributing to the development of their communities. Healthy children can attend school regularly and concentrate in their studies. A source of water close to home saves time and energy of women and girls, who are responsible for fetching water. In under developed and developing nations, the responsibility of collecting water every day falls disproportionately on women and girls. On average women in these areas, spend 25 percent of their day fetchingwater for their families. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family or attending school.
As part of Action Against Hunger’s intervention to improve the WASH programs in Somalia, a country affected by impending drought causing severe water shortage leading to use of contaminated water coupled with poor hygiene practices, ACF conducted awater trucking activity for fifteen days in March 2020 for six hundred households in nine villages of Wajid district. Each household received forty-five liters of clean water. The project targeted 1247 women, 1186 men, 997 girls and 770 boys.
Farey Abdi Madow, a mother of eight was among the six hundred household Action Against Hunger targeted for its emergency water trucking activity. After losing family assets due to drought, Farey, her family migrated to Garasaale village to look for assistance from relatives and other well-wishers. She now lives there with her eight children, like many other pastoralists that lost their livestock to the drought. “Before Action Against Hunger trucked water to my village, the situation was bad. People lacked water to drink, wash and cook food. Today we have enough water at home. We are able to access clean, fresh and chlorinated water safe for human consumption”, explains Farey.
Thanks to the water trucking intervention, Farey and her children received forty-five liters of fresh water per day for a period of 15 days. The water was treated to make it safe for consumption, which significantly reduced cases of diarrhea and other water related diseases. Thanks to the DFID-funded project, they now have access to clean water for drinking and domestic use such as washing, bathing and cooking without having to walk long distances. “We are thankful for Action Against Hunger timely assistance that came at a time of great need. We hope that the response will be extended until the rains come,” she says. “Water is vital for the survival of human beings and animals. It is devastating to see people suffer from a lack of it. We need to come together and offer life-saving assistance to those people in need”, Farey adds.
Published by Abdikarim Ali, BRCiS NRC Communication and advocacy coordinator