Objective of the Project
To respond to immediate basic needs of the vulnerable communities affected by drought in the Nugal Region of Puntland by increasing access to safe water through water trucking.
Target Beneficiaries
The intervention targets to support some 1,290 households of vulnerable families spread within seven (7) villages in the Nugal region of Puntland. Working with an average of 6 beneficiaries per family approximately 7,740 beneficiaries will be reached.
Background
Somalia, as in most of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region, is prone to extreme climate events such as cyclic droughts and floods usually with devastating and severe negative impacts on key socio-economic sectors. In the March-June 2010 “long” rainy season, most of the Horn Region received enhanced rainfall above the normal threshold for accumulated monthly or seasonal rainfall resulting to flooding in several areas. The succeeding short rains, that are often expected variously in the months of September-December in most parts of the eastern Africa and which are usually less reliable due to shorter and uneven distribution, failed to a large extent in the region resulting into the current drought conditions.
The poor rainfall is tied to the effects of the “La Nina” phenomenon, which affects rainfall patterns globally. Most of the drought extends throughout the arid and semi-arid regions of eastern Africa and has greatly affected grazing lands and water supplies in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. In November 2010, the President of the Puntland State of Somalia announced a drought emergency in Puntland and appealed to the international community and humanitarian agencies to assist the people of Puntland who are experiencing severe drought enveloping most of the country. In addition, the government through HADMA made an appeal to all humanitarian organizations operating in Puntland to make efforts to address the drought emergency.
In the Puntland administrative domain alone, an estimated 211,100 people are seriously affected and require urgent humanitarian assistance (HADMA). However, considering that the Gu rains are expected in Puntland only in late-April or early-May and the number of drought victims is expected to grow considerably over the remaining 3-month period.
The beneficiary population and their livestock are faced with a crippling lack of water, an essential commodity for life, to the point that even basic needs of the population cannot be met. ADRA, in reaction to this emergency, proposes to respond as a “life-saving measure” with water trucking interventions in several villages selected villages worst hit by the drought and water scarcity problem as highlighted above. In this context, therefore, relief is purely intended as a “life saving measure” and will provide water only for urgent survival needs of the affected population in order to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and minimum quantities for cooking, and personal and domestic hygienic requirements.
By supplying at least a survival level of 6.7 l/p/d (considering the long distances to be covered from collection to distribution points = ranging between 15 and 90 km), it is considered that such quantities will be adequate as life saving intervention
