YEMEN: Water project set to help thousands of IDPs
HAJJAH, 22 March 2010 (IRIN) - Up to 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in two camps in northern Yemen are set to benefit from a new water project funded by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and implemented by Oxfam.
Inaugurated on 19 March to mark World Water Day, the project involves 26 tankers, four reservoirs and a network of pipes in Mazraq camps one and three in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate.
Trucks will transport water from two artesian wells 40km from the camps and fill the two 45-cubic-metre reservoirs in each camp, according to Zahra Sethna, UNICEF’s emergency communications specialist in Yemen. From the reservoirs, the water will be piped to various points around the camps.
"There are 20 water points in camp one and 24 in camp three where residents can get their water," she told IRIN on 21 March.
She said a second stage of the project, which is currently in progress, is being funded by the government’s Social Fund for Development and entails piping water directly from the wells to the camps, eliminating the need for water tankers.
"This will be more sustainable and cost-effective in the long-term. After the piped network construction is complete, we anticipate that the scheme will provide safe drinking water to around 45,000 beneficiaries," UNICEF’s Sethna said, adding that the project would also serve villages in the areas of al-Mazraq, al-Khawer and Malous in Haradh District.
Raising awareness
Another aspect of the project - which UNICEF, Oxfam and local NGO al-Khair have been working on since October 2009 - is the promotion of better hygiene and sanitation practices among the displaced population.
"We work with 50 men and women from within the IDP community who act as hygiene volunteers and water caretakers, raising awareness in the community, mobilizing participation to construct latrines, organizing cleaning campaigns, and promoting hand-washing and other personal hygiene practices,” Anne Marie Fonseka, UNICEF deputy representative in Yemen, said during the project’s inauguration.
"This intensive promotion work has been very successful in enhancing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the community and has contributed to a cleaner and more sanitary camp environment," she explained. "Water and sanitation-related diseases have dramatically decreased within the camps, and the general health of the community has been significantly enhanced."
A survey last month of 1,100 IDP families in Mazraq camps by NGO al-Khair revealed that because of this hygiene promotion work, more than 90 percent of respondents were aware of the importance of proper excreta disposal, hand-washing, clean water, personal and domestic hygiene and disease prevention, according to Fonseka.
Of the estimated 250,000 IDPs in Yemen, 130,000 are living in camps and scattered settlements in Hajjah Governorate.
Yemen is one of the driest countries in the world, with a per capita water consumption of about 125 cubic metres a year, against a global average of 7,500 cubic metres, according to the UN Development Programme’s 2009 Arab Human Development Report. Annual per capita water consumption of less than 1,000 cubic metres retards development, the report said.
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation
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Copyright © IRIN 2010
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
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