Water Is Life

“By Rehabilitating Three Water Schemes, Safe Drinking Water Becomes Easily Accessible to 25,226 Individuals in Khayran Al Muharraq and Al-Qafr Districts of Hajjah and Ibb Governorates”

Hajjah, Yemen, an elderly woman named Qadria at the age of seventy-four living in a hardest-hit area known for its grinding poverty and scarcity of clean water. In Khayran Al-Muharraq district, Masrooh in particular, hundreds of families struggled to reach and bring home clean water from unprotected wells as it takes them two hours to get there by foot. In fact, the elderly who live far away from the boreholes wish to have a house nearby instead of cutting across a long mountainous roads when being incapable to do so. Even a donkey cannot endure more than a year, going back and forth every day while carrying jerry water cans. Thus, it is either sold if it is alive or fed to dogs if it dies.

“I don’t have children, but I had a nephew who fell into a borehole at the age of ten while trying to fetch water. The bucket fell down from his hands and tried to reach out to take it, but he fell into the borehole, and no one was able to save him. Since then, I have been fetching water myself although I do not have the energy to walk long distances at this very age. I really wish to have a house adjacent to a water well,” stated Qadria.

In January 2020, Relief and Development Peer Foundation (RDP), in partnership with Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF), started the implementation of WASH response project for IDPs and most affected population in Khayran Al Muharraq district of Hajjah governorate and Al Qafr district of Ibb governorate. The project aimed to improve easy access to safe and clean drinking water and to ensure thousands of IDPs and most affected population no longer have to walk long distances to get unsafe water from unprotected wells throughout the rehabilitation of three water schemes to support 25,226 individuals in Masrooh sub-district of Khayran Al Muharraq district and in Bani Saif Al-Safel & Bani Mubariz sub-districts of Al-Qafr district.

In September 2020, RDP successfully completed the rehabilitation of three water schemes which included the construction of two main water tanks of 100 cubic meters/each, two pumping rooms, rehabilitation of three collective water tanks, construction of 25 water distribution points, and installation of solar panel systems with a total capacity of 108.58 kw. 19,514 beneficiaries in Khayran Al Muharraq district and 5,752 BNFs in Al-Qafr district have directly benefitted from the WASH response project taken place in the targeted districts of Ibb and Hajjah governorates.

Thanks for the generous contribution and continuous support of YHF which helped thousands of people get adequate access to safe drinking water and no longer have to cut across long mountainous roads to get jerry cans filled with unsafe water. Two wells have also been protected and safe with no more animal feces surrounded.  Most of all, provision of clean water helped minimize the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera.