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14 July 2009 – Aid agencies in
Somalia are appealing for $11 million to provide the hundreds of people
displaced by fighting in the capital with emergency water and sanitation
programmes, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today.
Over 200,000 people have fled Mogadishu since fighting broke out between
the Government and the opposition Al-Shabab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups in
early May, in what the UN refugee agency has described as the biggest
exodus from the capital since Ethiopian forces intervened in Somalia in
2007.
OCHA said that those most in need of water, sanitation and hygiene
services include more than 600,000 people displaced by clashes since
2007 and who are settled in the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu.
Aid agencies are currently only able to supply two to 8 litres of water
per person per day in that area, while between 7.5 and 15 litres – less
than one flush of an average toilet – is considered the minimum needed
for survival, according to OCHA.
There is also currently one latrine for every 212 displaced people in
the Afgooye corridor.
A major concern is that effect the lack of water is having on efforts to
prevent the spread of communicable diseases in overcrowded situations.
In addition, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) requires $3.3 million
before the end of July to maintain life-saving operations for more than
1 million conflict-affected people, while current emergency funding
allocated for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is likely to be
exhausted within the next two months.
Over 2.1 million is also needed to provide water to drought-affected
communities in Puntland, Somaliland and other areas in the south-central
region of the country, where more than 227,000 people are currently
subsisting on 2 litres of water per day or less.
Violence continues in the Horn of Africa nation despite the signing of a
UN-facilitated peace accord last year, as well as the election of
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the formation of a new
Government in February.
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