Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Solutions
In August 2025, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that funding cuts had left 300,000 people in Somalia without access to safe water — and where clean water disappears, cholera, dysentery, and other waterborne diseases follow. For families already displaced by drought and conflict, an outbreak isn't just an illness. It can be a death sentence.
Mercy-USA has been providing safe water through pipeline extensions to the camps
Families will stay on their land if they can survive, but if they no longer have a safe source of clean water for their children or even their livestock, they must leave to find support and water.
Mothers may do their best to boil what water they can find, but their children are still falling sick with diarrhea that causes severe malnutrition and, more often, death. Now, cholera has been reported in parts of the country.
Climate change, distant wars that created grain and oil shortages, and internal political instability have created a perfect storm of suffering that isn’t expected to change soon.
Mercy-USA has been working hard to mitigate the dire water, sanitation, and hygiene situation in drought-affected regions of Somalia, particularly in informal camps for internally displaced people where conditions are causing illness and misery.
As part of the emergency WASH response, together with I-WASH consortium partners, Mercy-USA has provided safe water through pipeline extensions to the camps, improved sanitation by constructing latrines and tap stands, distributed hygiene kits and supplies, and raised awareness of good hygiene practices in these informal communities.
This work is possible with the generous support of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in close partnership with the Somali Humanitarian Fund, the Office of European Humanitarian Aid, and in close collaboration with Polish Humanitarian Action and Humanity Inclusion.
Success Story
Halima Bundid Omar is a 37-year-old mother of eleven children who lives in the Kunaso camp for internally displaced people. She and her family had to flee their village a year earlier after Halima’s husband passed away, leaving her as the sole provider for her family. Upon arrival at the IDP camp, they struggled to find clean drinking water. Halima had to walk approximately 3.5 miles every day to fetch water from distant villages, often coming back with barely a gallon.
However, Halima’s situation improved significantly when Mercy-USA provided tap stands that gave them access to clean water. “We were able to overcome many challenges,” she said. “When Mercy-USA gave us clean water through tap stands inside our IDP camp, this project has not only covered our need for water but also improved our health because none of my kids have fallen ill since we have access to clean water and don’t need to consume contaminated water.” Thanks to this project, Halima’s children are now attending school, and she has time to look for work.
