Syria water crisis 2015

ŠUNICEF Syria/2015/Khudr Issa

Syria: Severe water shortages compound the misery of millions 12.2 million 5 million

50%

People in Aleppo, Rural Damascus and Dar’a are left without water when the main supply is cut

Decrease of water availability compared with pre-crisis level

Five years into the conflict, Syria is the largest humanitarian and protection crisis in the world.

The protracted crisis has severely affected all basic social services leaving the affected people of Syria deprived of many of their basic human rights including water and sanitation.

The availability of drinking water has been reduced on average by over 50% since 2011. In some areas, like Aleppo and As Salamia (Hama), water availability is down by 80%, with many people

people in need of humanitarian assistance

7.6 million

people internally displaced

5.6 million

children in need of humanitarian assistance

4.8 million

people living in hard to reach areas inside Syria

receiving less than 5% of pre-crisis levels. There are multiple factors contributing to water shortages in Syria including direct damages to production and distribution systems, electricity cuts to power water facilities, deteriorating state of infrastructure as a result of a chronic lack of operation and maintenance and the overburdening of existing systems due to large influxes of internally displaced people. In addition, the deliberate cutting of supply continues to be used by parties to the conflict for political and military gains.

The energy crisis has already put a strain on the water facilities that require electrical power supply to operate. Some parts of the country are getting as low as one hour of electricity supply per day.

This has a tremendous impact on the delivery of public services like health, water, garbage collection and sanitation. Since the spike in fuel prices, the operating time for pumping stations has been reduced in many areas from six hours to just two hours a day. The power crises in Syria is further compounding the already strained water supply and sanitation services.

In recent months, up to five million people living in cities and communities across the country – about half of whom children - have suffered the consequences of long and deliberate interruptions to their water supplies, exposing them, especially children, to the risk of water borne diseases.

In the northern city of Aleppo, as a case in point, where fighting has crippled the main pumping stations for several months at a time, UNICEF has

recorded 18 deliberate water cuts this year alone.

Taps in some communities were left dry for up to 17 days in a row, and for over a month in some areas of the city.

With no water at home, families – and very often children – take on the laborious task of collecting water from street standpipes and collection points.

Some have to walk for kilometres amid the heat on end carrying heavy jerry cans before they reach their homes. When they do many have to climb a number of flights of stairs before reaching their apartments.

This task has also proven to be dangerous. In two separate incidents at least three children were killed by mortar attacks while collecting water from collection points and wells.

In response, UNICEF scaled up its water trucking operation in Aleppo to nearly four-fold the preceding operation targeting to provide 10 million litres of drinking water to nearly 700,000 people. In August, UNICEF has trucked more than 70,000,000 litres of water in Aleppo. In addition, UNICEF is supporting the development of additional wells and supplying two purification units that will collectively provide drinking water for nearly 230,000 people in Aleppo.

Water cuts and shortages are spreading to other parts of the country. Water prices have sky rocketed with an increase of 3,000% in Aleppo. While the supply is limited, millions of people depend on the assistance from UNICEF and partners to access clean drinking water.

©UNICEF Syria/2015/Khudr Issa

While many factors underlie the recurrent water supply cut offs, the most prominent of these include deliberate shut down of supply and electric power systems, sabotage and damage of power generation plants’ gas feed systems, failure of existing water supply systems to meet the increased demand created by influx of displaced people, and systemic systems’ failure due to sub-optimal maintenance. This is impacting the availability of electricity throughout the country.

UNICEF’s ongoing support to the water sector in Syria UNICEF’s response is twofold: • Address immediate needs by all means possible through life saving operations such as water trucking.

• Develop and diversify sustainable alternative water sources to build population resilience and reduce their dependency on the fragile, unstable and vulnerable main network.

Key response activities (Jan-July 2015) • Provision of water treatment supplies (sodium hypochlorite) ensuring access to clean and decontaminated water for 15 million people.

This is critical as Syria is unable to procure its own water treatment material due to externally imposed sanctions.

• 5.4 million people provided with improved WASH services through resilience building interventions (including rehabilitation of piped network; development of alternative water sources such as ground water wells and river infiltration galleries; installation of mobile water treatment units; distribution of water storage tanks at community level).

• 94 wells rehabilitated, providing water to 470,000 people.

• 300,000 liters of fuel provided to run standby power for the water supply and generators in Aleppo and Damascus.

• Over 660,000 people provided with hygiene items coupled with hygiene promotion services.

©UNICEF Syria/2015/Khudr Issa

• 500,000 people reached through water trucking, including 400,000 in Aleppo.

Immediate needs Develop 40 additional local groundwater wells in Aleppo and Damascus to further bolster coverage and capacity of alternative water supplies to meet the needs of 200,000 people.

$2,500,000

Construct a water treatment, pumping facility and water transmission pipeline in Aleppo.

$15,000,000

Continue water trucking to reach 800,000 people in Aleppo and Dar’a.

$1,000,000

Provision of 1 million litres of fuel to operate standby water pumping generators for six months.

$750,000

Scale up of water quality surveillance in Dar’a covering 126,000 people and provide assistance, including hygiene and baby kits, slabs for temporary latrines and emergency water (pumps, sodium hypochlorite, chlorine pills, containers etc.) to 100,000 internally displaced people.

$750,000

Total

$20,000,000

ŠUNICEF Syria/2015/Khudr Issa

Funding gap WASH FUNDING STATUS (AS OF AUGUST 2015)

T

As the conflict continues to escalate with a ruthless indifference to the suffering of the civilian population, there is an urgent need to scale up our response in developing and diversifying alternative water resources.

Despite all efforts, our response still falls far short of addressing water cuts that are threatening to become a humanitarian catastrophe. UNICEF has a funding gap of US$ 40.5 million for its work in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene inside Syria until the end of the year. It urgently needs US$ 20 million to respond to the needs in Aleppo, Damascus, Rural Damascus and Dar’a. The funding shortfall has already impacted millions needing humanitarian aid. Without additional funding about 5 million people, including nearly 2.5 million children, will have to rely on dirty water from unregulated and unprotected groundwater sources, exposing children in particular to the risk of contracting diarrhoea, typhoid, hepatitis, and other diseases.

DING REQ FUN UIR L A ED T O

RECEIVED US$ 31,527,414 44%

US

UNFUNDED US$ 40,495,886 56%

$ 7 2,0 2 3,3 0 0