Urgent water crisis

by Hodan Mohamad Warsame

My name is Hodan and I am a water engineer for Oxfam in Somalia. I was born and raised here and growing up I saw for myself how difficult life can be when water isn’t safe.

In Somalia, devastating floods and a series of extreme droughts have combined with a chronic lack of funding to destroy the water systems that many families rely on.

Local water engineers and volunteers are crucial in the fight against dirty water.

Together, we understand the context, know the geography, the culture and the local challenges. And we have the expertise to fix broken water systems today and make them fit for an uncertain future.

I met Barwaaqo and her young family at Beledweyne, a camp for internally displaced people. They came in search of safety after six consecutive droughts were followed by terrifying flooding.

"During the recent floods we lost everything in one night, and we had to evacuate our children by carrying them on our shoulders because of the rising flood water."

"With our livelihoods disrupted, we had to resort to using floodwater for our daily needs. We were exposed to diseases such as cholera and malaria, which mainly affected children."

Sadly, worldwide, diseases carried in dirty drinking water are killing 1,000 children every day. In fact, dirty water is a greater risk to human life than conflict and disaster combined.

In my visits to remote villages in the north of Somalia, I regularly see water systems that were never designed to cope with massive amounts of rainwater that climate change now brings.

But I am also seeing the first signs of change thanks to community-led water projects like the one at Boocame village! And your support today can play a vital part.

Working hand-in-hand with community water committee members like Abdirisaq, local engineers have helped to drill a new borehole, dig trenches and install 2.5 km of upgraded pipeline, bringing clean water back to Boocame. When I saw Abdirisaq recently, he couldn’t hold back:

“Before this project, our community faced many challenges.…We can now provide water to areas that had no access before, improving health for everyone!”