Current Challenges
Somalia, an eastern African coastline country home to over 17 million people, needs our help to battle a severe water scarcity and food crisis. Not only does only half the population have access to clean water, but they are also experiencing food shortages that have now reached emergency levels due to consecutive years of droughts. Somalia relies heavily on support from other countries, but aid efforts are often hindered by conflict from a decades-long civil conflict.
As with most countries facing a civil war, many citizens are displaced, searching for new housing away from the fighting. Existing water and hygiene infrastructure cannot withstand the extra stress of more users, leaving many communities without enough clean water and hygienic facilities. The Somalian government needs all the help they can get to help set up regulations after many years of violent conflict, droughts, disease, and more.
We at Healing Waters International are just one of the many organizations looking to aid the people of Somalia by creating innovative and adaptive water filtration solutions that will work best for each community we serve. Learn with us the struggles of the country, and how we can help find solutions that give clean water back to the people.
Climate
With a large desert covering a portion of the country and very few rivers, Somalia is generally known for some dry weather conditions. This is why groundwater sources are so important in supplying water to the people. However, Somalia is facing its worst drought in decades, and the situation isn’t likely to improve any time soon.
As it stands, food production is so low from the droughts that Somalia is already dependent on imported food from other countries. Droughts and the ongoing climate change crisis will continue to worsen food and clean water production for the citizens. With environmental and weather conditions not on their side, we will need to work together to develop viable solutions to provide Somalians with clean water to use for drinking, food production, cleaning, and more.
Water Contamination & Access to Clean Water
As we mentioned, Somalia relies heavily on groundwater sources to meet the water supply demand. Unfortunately, groundwater sources are vulnerable to pollution. Without any tools or regulations set in place to clean groundwater sources, people are forced to drink the water as it is, including whatever is found in it. With a lower amount of available water due to droughts, people are forced to share sources of water, sometimes even with animals and livestock. This often means people are gathering water that other humans or animals may have used to bathe with or even defecated near. Even when there is a large enough supply of water, much of it remains unusable due to high levels of pollution due to lack of water regulation. This contaminated water causes lots of preventable water-related illnesses across communities, especially in children who are particularly vulnerable.
Education
When it comes to the dangers of polluted water, one of the best ways to combat it is to educate communities on how water borne diseases occur and spread. This is something we at Healing Waters do best. That’s because we don’t only bring clean water to the communities that need it the most, but we also ensure members of the community can protect themselves and their families from illness. By teaching leaders about the importance of hygiene and keeping water sources clean, the knowledge can be passed down to future generations and the community can begin to thrive. Our health and hygiene training has been an effective way to stop the spread of illnesses, to get adults back to work, children back to schools, and most importantly, stop unnecessary deaths from preventable diseases.
How Do the Families in Somalia Get Water?
Due to both conflict and droughts, many people needed to leave their homes just to survive. Communities that take in these refugees often don’t have enough clean water to go around for the displaced population. Many families are forced to walk miles to collect water for their families to drink and bathe with. Instead of gathering from safe taps, many are forced to use unsafe groundwater sources instead. With more infrastructure to filter unclean water, we can get clean water to the people much quicker.
How a Custom Water Filtration System Can Help
Water filtration systems help remove impurities from rain and ground water sources using ultrafiltration technology. This may sound like a difficult project to deploy, but staff at Healing Waters continue to innovate our solutions to make them as affordable, compact, and user-friendly as possible.
All of our filtration systems are custom chosen to cater to the geographic obstacles and population size of the community, so every area gets the solution that works best for them. Even in the middle of these droughts, water filtration systems will ensure people can safely drink from existing groundwater sources. With these systems, there is little maintenance to upkeep, allowing community leaders to easily monitor their own water business. While the country needs all the support it can get, these solutions will go a long way to providing real solutions, quickly.
How You Can Help Somalia Get Access to Clean Water
We believe it should be everybody’s mission to ensure every person in this world has access to clean water. There is always a way for you to help us accomplish this! Reach out to us for more information on our Saturate community, or simply provide us with a donation. We are always looking for assistance in any way you can provide. With your help, you are taking part in what should be all of our collective mission to ensure every person in the world has access to clean water. Find out more about our various clean water projects from around the world and take action on the Somalia water crisis with us today!