The access to drinking water and sanitation is a human right. In Somalia, these services continue to be a luxury for large parts of the local population. Somalia is both a water scarce country and a country with collapsed infrastructure because of prolonged civil war compounded with limited sector governance and low availability of skilled individuals. According to WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) 2017- SDG launch report, access to piped water stands at 19% nationally; whereas, access to improved water sources stands at 40% nationally. Access to basic sanitation stands at 16%, with 11% of population using shared facilities and 34% unimproved sanitation facilities. Open defecation rate stands at 39% nationally with 7% in urban areas and 60% in rural defect in the open.

The challenges related to sanitation in Somalia involve various issues, from the low level of access to sanitation facilities and services as well as the low service coverage with poor quality of sanitation services to the lack of a legislative and institutional framework. According to WASH KAP Survey 2015, less than half (44%) has a general hand washing facility, among those with hand-washing facilities, only 10% of them have water and soap whilst 4% have a combination of water, soap and drainage.

WASH Interventions

In Somalia, 2.7 million people are still in need of humanitarian WASH support1 after decades of protracted crisis. HIRDO aims to improve the quality of life of community members through the promotion of hygiene and sanitation, household drinking water, hand washing and waste management at the household level through raising awareness, empowering community members, promotion of hygiene and sanitation raise awareness on solid waste management.

WASH situation has deteriorated in Somalia after four failed rainy seasons. The surface water sources and shallow wells have continued to dry-up from reduced recharge. Boreholes have recorded decreased production and, are not sufficient to meet water demand for host communities and the IDPs. Limited access to water undermined improved personal hygiene and handwashing practices while handwashing facilities is a major impediment to handwashing practices as visible functional handwashing facilities to improve hand-washing behavior. The local communities especially IDPs use water for cleansing and is observed that mostly used 3 liter water containers to carry water into the latrine and the same was used to wash hands but without soap. This provided a point of contamination. The lack of hygiene kits, affects personal hygiene and is a barrier to hand washing practices.

To provide urgent need to support WASH needs in organizational targeted areas to improve access to WASH services and enable communities live in dignity, HIRDO is implementing WASH project in Benadir region especially Waberi, Hodan, Wartanabadda, Bondheere, Shibis, Shangani, Heliwa, Yaqshid, Abdul-Aziz, Halwadag and Hamarweyne districts. The project is integrated WASH activities into the on-going nutrition intervention through the OTP centers in ach district. The main activities includes rehabilitation of elevated water tanks, toilets with handwashing facilities, waste disposal management and hygiene promotion in coordination with the Benadir regional administration