Somalia is a semi-arid to arid country, in which less than 29% of the total population has access to safe water. In the rural areas this figure goes down to 4%¹. Frequent droughts, combined with a prolonged conflict that has eroded traditional coping mechanisms, have drained all the resources, including the communities’ capacity to find solutions. The few water points are in poor condition and not easily accessible to all, hardly any infrastructures to store supplies or to treat water are present, and high competition for water resources continues to exacerbate the conflicts.
Water accessibility affects other vital sectors, like health, education, protection and livelihood. Water from shallow wells, for instance, is often polluted, causing outbreaks of waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrhea. Another example is that of women and girls who have to walk long distances everyday to find water, and thus are deprived of education opportunities and are exposed to gender based violence along the way. Moreover, rural households, in particular destitute pastoralists, are increasingly moving towards urban areas looking for access to services, creating the conditions for further conflicts over scarce resources.

CISP’s effort in water and sanitation

CISP has started its activities in Somalia in the of Water and Sanitation sector back in 2001. Since then, CISP has been responding t

o the needs of rural communities to access safe water, by means of construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, and of capacity building for the treatment and management of water. Sanitation interventions are meant to reduce waterborne diseases and improve health and hygiene conditions. “Through our interventions in water and sanitation, we have also managed to raise awareness on basic hygiene notions that have had a significant impact in the reduction of waterborne diseases, especially for children” underlines Dr. Abdi Tari, CISP Health officer.

CISP’s overall objective is to increase sustainable and equitable access to water, promoting at the same time health, education and livelihood.

CISP's water and sanitation intervention map

> Click on the map

See CISP's Water and Sanitation Programme

¹USAID 2007