SOMALIA: Safe Urban Water

SECTOR: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

DEMOGRAPHIC: Community: urban or peri-urban households in Mogadishu, around 6 members per household, may be female-headed, lots of children. Many internally displaced people (IDPs) living from day labour or subsidies.

HUMANITARIAN NEED:

• Reduced incidence of diarrhea through clean and safe drinking water

• Ongoing water quality monitoring

• Community satisfaction

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Mogadishu is the capital city of Somalia with a population of around 2.4 million people. Most districts are overcrowded, without proper urban planning and most residents rely on contaminated shallow wells as their main drinking water source. A high density of water points and sanitation facilities has resulted in the contamination of aquifers and there is no municipal water supply system in place. The Somali WASH Cluster is looking for a solution to be implemented in the short-to-medium term, to supply urban communities of Mogadishu with safe, potable water for domestic purposes, with a simple and sustainable technology using shallow wells as the water source. Most shallow wells in Mogadishu are saline and bacteriologically contaminated but they are the only local source of water.