Somalilandsun- “We are having a three-year long drought and it has really affected us and made our lives miserable,” said Moulid Ismail, a water vendor we met in March in Tog-Wajaale, a town on the border of Ethiopia and Somaliland, northwestern Somalia. Moulid and other water vendors collect water from this muddy reservoir left by recent rains. They then sell it to the households in town.
For decades, water has been a scarce commodity for the communities of Tog-Wajaale. But the situation is about to change. The urban water project under the UNICEF-EU partnership has been implemented in Tog-Wajaale and three other major towns – Boroma, Burao and Erigavo – in Somaliland since 2012. Under the project, water systems in these towns will be built and strengthened, effective water management schemes will be put in place, and water users associations supported and trained. By 2017, almost one million people can have piped water delivered to their residence, thanks to the UNICEF-EU partnership.
