Clean water, basic toilets and good hygiene practices.

Only 52 percent of the population in Somalia have access to a basic water supply. Limited regulation of private water suppliers often leads to expensive prices, forcing families to fetch water from far and from unsafe open wells. Open defecation is common practice and 28 percent of the population defecate in the open. Without access to clean water, toilets and good hygiene practices, the risk of contracting easily preventable diseases, such as diarrhoea, acute watery diarrhea, cholera, and respiratory infections, is high. In the past 3 years, more than 900 people in Somalia, majority of them children under the age of five, have died from cholera. When women are forced to give birth in these poor conditions the lives of mothers and babies are also at stake.

Everyone deserves Safe access to clean water and appropriate sanitation facilities.

Our WASH programmes seek to save lives, prevent diseases, promote dignity, and support access to better living conditions and livelihood opportunities. We do this through direct interventions, in collaboration with our shelter, education and livelihoods and food security experts, and through partnerships with other organisations. The mode of operation we choose depends primarily on the WASH needs of our targeted beneficiaries, and the quickest and most effective way to meet those identified needs.

Our WASH programmes focus on the following key areas:

• Supplying safe water for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and household cleaning
• Constructing and maintaining latrines or toilets segregated by gender, or family units that are safe for women, girls, men and boys to use at all times.
• Disease surveillance and increased vigilance on water quality and sanitation practices
• Solid waste management and site drainage activities
• Hygiene promotion and community mobilisation to promote safe hygiene and health-seeking behaviours