Water, environment and sanitation

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) comprise UNICEF’s key activities in the water sector in Somalia.

These closely-linked projects both address the problems of waterborne diseases like cholera. They help to build sustainable water supply and distribution systems in urban and rural areas, while ensuring access for the most vulnerable and poor members of communities. In community schools, specific social mobilization campaigns are carried out through hygiene education. Students learn improved handwashing techniques and how to safely store household water. 

UNICEF continues to support local administrations in formulating policy on all domestic and related water supply sources, helping them to improve the quality of planning, implementation and supervision. Among the highlights of UNICEF activities in 2007:

Institutional Capacity Development: In an effort to ensure the sustainable and effective delivery of water and sanitation services to the Somali people, UNICEF has supported state authorities (the TFG Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources in Central/Southern Somalia, Puntland State Agency for Water and Mineral Resources in Northeast Somalia and the Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources and Ministry of Health and Labour in Northwest Somalia (“Somaliland’).

The support to enable them fulfil their role in guiding and overseeing the water sector has included rehabilitating and equipping office and laboratory facilities; training management staff and water technicians and enabling the establishment of effective coordination mechanisms for WASH partners and, in collaboration with partners, facilitating the collection of water resource data for planning and monitoring purposes.

The adoption of the Somaliland water policy, strategy and act (in 2005) was followed up in 2007 with assistance to roll out and promote the policy, and in Puntland to develop a water policy. Building on the successful use of public-private partnerships as a model for managing water systems, three new towns made concrete progress towards setting up a water company under municipal/central government oversight. Management support and training to established water companies, agencies and boards continued, with four billing systems installed and four water boards trained.

Water Supply: UNICEF and partners increased access to safe water for approximately 245,600 people across Somalia in 2007. This was achieved through support to the design and/or construction of five urban water supply systems which are ongoing (Ba'ad Weyne, Goldogob, Bosasso, Baidoa, Gabiley), the rehabilitation and restoration of six rural mini water systems and 22 rural borehole water supply systems and the rehabilitation and protection of 111 shallow wells.

For all water supply projects, community-based management systems were supported with 52 water management committees established and/or provided with technical and administrative training to enable them to more effectively develop, operate and manage rural water systems.

Hygiene and Environmental Sanitation: UNICEF focused on promoting improved knowledge on the benefits of adopting safe hygiene and sanitation practices among target communities and providing access to related facilities. In 2007, an estimated 17,000 students in 39 schools and mothers and staff of six MCHs gained access to hand washing and sanitation facilities.

Emergency Response: UNICEF and partners response to the widespread acute diarrhoea/cholera outbreak in Central/Southern Somalia concentrated on treatment of water sources through a massive chlorination effort (over 1,000 wells treated in Mogadishu, Baidoa, riverine communities and other rural areas) and intensified and proactive hygiene promotion activities at both water sources and point of use. Through distribution of water treatment supplies and the repair and extension of safe water sources, UNICEF and partners increased access to safe drinking water to over 200,000 flood victims and over 30,000 acute diarrhoea cases and their households. UNICEF provided sanitation tools for garbage collection and clean-up campaigns for over 30,000 households, and assisted displaced communities to construct latrines to benefit over 80,000 people.

The provision of latrines and hand washing facilities in Northwest, Northeast, Central and Southern Somalia including the building of sanitation facilities in schools, is a key component of UNICEF activities. UNICEF’s water and sanitation teams are devising cost-effective ways of promoting behaviour change, improved personal hygiene, and environmental sanitation at the household and community level, and in schools. 

UNICEF continues to provide technical support and supplies toward the establishment of new water points and alternative water systems, and provides training in the operation and maintenance of existing water sources. 

In addition to building school sanitation facilities, teachers are being trained in hygiene education, making the school sanitation and hygiene programme a main component of UNICEF’s overall environmental sanitation and hygiene programme.

In internally displaced people’s  (IDPs) camps, and several urban and semi-urban centres, sanitation tools (shovels, wheelbarrows, rakes and brooms) are being distributed to assist communities in cleaning up their environment. UNICEF continues to promote the proper storage and handling of drinking water, along with hand washing practices, among households.

During the cholera ‘season’ (cholera outbreaks normally occur in Somalia from December to June annually), chlorine is positioned in advance in susceptible areas and the community is trained on how to prevent outbreaks. Area schools also receive help to combat the disease.

UNICEF works closely with local communities, water authorities and water boards, local self-help groups, the private sector, community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in all water and environmental sanitation activities. All of these partners are under the overall umbrella of the Somalia Support Secretariat (formerly the Somalia Aid Coordination Body) Water, Sanitation and Infrastructure Committee, which is comprised of United Nations agencies, NGOs and donor groups.