Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 34

Water & Health
In Search of Water
worse outcome - already more than five times as many
people have been forced to leave their homes because
of this year’s drought, compared to the peak of the 2011
famine.
In Search of Water
Addressing and preventing famine in Somalia
Mohamed Ismail Yasin, originally from Mayle village in
northeast Somalia, fled the region’s prolonged and severe
drought with his six-member family and most of his
livestock.
They had to travel 600 km to the nearest dependable water
source: a sand dam near Bandarbeyla in neighbouring Bari
region.
Like Mohamed, 615,000 people are currently displaced by
the drought in Somalia.
Looming Famine
Somalia is one
of four countries
facing the threat
of famine, and
the situation
in is rapidly
deteriorating.
Parts of the
country have not
received any rain
for three consecutive years. In some areas, crops have been
completely wiped out and livestock has died; communities
have been forced to sell assets and to borrow food and
money to survive.
Half of the population – 6.2 million people out of the
country’s 12.3 million - do not have access to nutritious
food. Of these, nearly 3 million are in need of urgent life-
saving assistance.
People fear a repeat
of the 2011 famine
that killed nearly
260,000 people, half
of them children. The
current situation could
potentially end in a
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2017
To make
matters worse,
the price of
water has risen
dramatically. A
family with an
average-sized
livestock herd
now has to pay
anywhere from
US$200 to $400
per month for water.These costs can be catastrophic for
farmers trying to earn a living..
A newly-built water dam may just deliver the badly-needed
relief. For Mohamed and his family, it has been a life – and
money – saver.
“Ever since we found out about the dam, we’re saving
around $400 a month, which I can now put towards the
basic needs of my family,” he says.
The sand dam is one of the water harvesting structures
built by UNDP in partnership with the Global
Environment Facility. It aims to reduce the impacts of
climate change-induced disasters like droughts and floods.
Before the construction of the dam, people from the
Dhudo community had no other option but to buy
water from the berkades (traditional cemented water
catchments). The placement of the berkades – far from
villages – adds an additional challenge to an already costly
solution.
The new dam has been strategically placed so that
nomadic communities in the region can easily access it. In
December 2016, the dam was able to conserve 95,000 m3
of surface water from short spells of rain, which provided
enough water for eight months.
The current rainfall, especially when