The residents of al-Salool area are suffering from lack of a sustainable water resource. A mountainous area, with sparse seasonal rainfall pattern, the residents suffer from constant draught, and people don’t benefit from the seasonal rainfalls. To fetch water for domestic use, women and children often times spend more than half of their day to access water from the closest water well outside of their village.

The majority of residents of the area, meanwhile, are people with limited income and means relying mostly on subsistence farming, livestock and beekeeping. - at such a small scale that they lack even the basic element of maintaining their lives. Fetching water is a hardship they have to endure. The only available water well is located outside of their village and purchasing water through water tankers have become out of their reach. Price of a water tanker reached upward of 50-thousand YER, a huge sum for many.

To the Rescue

According to Salim Daoud Aifer, one of the residents of the area, people have been enduring hardship and suffer from lack of water. When social consultants from PWP arrived in the area to identify needs, and news spread about the construction of a stone water reservoir up in the mountain, people were so happy. This is what they have been waiting for, for a long time. Water has been a constant challange facing the area.

He adds: “Women and children spent a good part of their day under the scorching heat of the sun trying to fetch water for their homes. This has led to a regression of the hygienic situation, especially amidst the children. A bath once a month due to lack of water was the norm”.

Under the ESPECRP, financed by the World Bank’s IDA in partnership with UNDP, PWP has implemented an intervention to improve the situation for the residents of al-Salool area in al-Dhale’a.

Provision of Food

Abdul-Raqib Nafe’a, one of the residents and a beneficiary, confirms that people are anxiously waiting for the seasonal rainfall. They now have a water harvesting reservoir in the middle of the mountain overlooking their village. This year is unlike previous years, they will be able to benefit from the rainwater that up till now had usually gone to waste.
He said:” the water harvesting reservoir would have a positive impact on the lives of people. It will enourage farmers to reclaim their land and work to grow food, increase their livestiock and at the same time, their women and children will be spared the hardship and loss of time. And as a result, there would also be an improvement to the personal hygiene of the people as a result.”