Somalia and UNDP launch US$10m water management project

November 11, 2019

New UNDP/GEF project will improve water access and livelihoods for 360,000 pastoralists

New project will improve water management, early warning systems and livelihoods. 

In Somalia, 3 out of 4 people are farmers or herders. For them, everything depends on water. But sources are disappearing as climate change brings more floods and droughts.

When rivers dry up, or burst their banks, people can’t make a living. Kids go hungry. In some families, women or girls can spend six hours a day carrying water from the nearest source. In others, communities fight each other and armed groups recruit young men who see no way out.

To help address these problems, the Government of Somalia and UNDP are today signing a new US$10m water management project, including US$8.8m of funding from the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund.

The new programme will improve the management of water supplies across Somalia and build new early-warning systems to help people escape climate-related disasters.

For 360,000 farmers, it should become easier to grow crops and raise herds. In selected communities, training programmes will bring new skills and better job prospects, and villagers will learn how to set up local water conservation and management systems.

With more reliable supplies of water, girls will not have trek for miles to the nearest source, so they can focus on their education and on being children. Across the country, communities will be safer, better off and more resilient in the face of climate-related disasters. 

Check out this video footage of where we’ll be working, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates from the field as the project gets going.

Full details in the press release.

Learn more about the new project here.