Emergency water trucking

At the request of the Afar Regional Disaster Prevention and Food Security Programme Office, FSA responded to a severe water shortage in Bidu and Kori districts.

Food shortages and drought have troubled the Afar region for a long time. The previous year’s drought left very little pasture or drinking water. The water shortage had also caused a sharp rise in livestock illness and death, which put people’s health and nutrition at risk and raised the danger of malnutrition and outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea. A report from the Ethiopia WASH Cluster on 22 August 2017 listed suspected cases of acute watery diarrhoea in Abala district.

Several humanitarian organisations had assessed the shortage to find the worst-affected districts. They and the district administrations reported that Bidu and Kori were hit hardest.

With a limited budget, FSA decided to deliver emergency water rations to four kebeles in Bidu district (Dua, Teo, Bure and Hullena) and two in Kori district (Gulubule and Guyah). Trucks brought water every day from the nearest kebeles that had enough to spare. Bidu district received water for four months and Kori district for two.

Hygiene and storage

To help with hygiene, we trained members of the community water committees so they could pass the training on to others. The sessions covered health, hygiene, water storage, water treatment and sanitation, along with guidance on managing water distribution in their communities.

So that people could store water safely, we gave the Bidu kebeles plastic water tanks holding 5,000 and 10,000 litres. We also handed out 500 plastic jerrycans to displaced families and others who had nothing to carry water in. The two kebeles in Kori already had birkas (traditional underground water tanks), so there we distributed water treatment kits with instructions on using them safely.

This project was supported by Welthungerhilfe and SIM Canada.