Water Under Fire, Volume 4
An urgent call to protect water, sanitation and hygiene in conflict
Highlights
Attacks that cause harm to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, services and to the people who operate, repair and use them are expanding in type, location and frequency in situations of armed conflict and violence globally.
Following on from Volume 3 of the Water Under Fire series, this report examines where and how such attacks have occurred over the past five years. Drawing on a mixed-methods review of globally available documented information, it identifies and categorizes seven types of attack recorded across 23 countries and territories.
To address these issues, humanitarian WASH actors are adapting and innovating their approaches in increasingly constrained environments. This report showcases these approaches, which are most often country led and grounded in local contexts and build on local capacities.
But neither innovation nor adaptation can substitute for protection. The findings of this report point to five areas in which change is needed to enhance the protection of WASH for children in conflict.
- Treat WASH infrastructure in conflict as indispensable to civilian survival, particularly children’s survival, and as essential to the realization of fundamental human rights.
- Create a mechanism to systematically collect data on attacks harming WASH in conflict.
- Improve the protection of children and communities seeking WASH services and of WASH and energy personnel.
- Enable safe, timely and unimpeded access for humanitarian, WASH and energy actors to people in need and to the essential supplies required to keep water and energy systems functioning.
- Invest in conflict-resilient WASH approaches and locally led service continuity arrangements.
