World Water Day 2019: To “Leave No One Behind”, Go Where No One Wants To Go
By Phearak Svay
Whoever you are, wherever you are in the world, safe and clean drinking water is your human right. Safe water underpins public health and is critical to sustainable development and a stable and prosperous world with thriving communities.
However, 2.1 billion people are still living without safe water at home. Marginalised groups — women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people — and people in fragile contexts and hard to reach places are often overlooked, and they face additional challenges to access and manage the safe water they need.
March 22nd is World Water Day and this year’s theme, “Leaving no one behind,” is about tackling the water crisis by addressing the reasons so many people are being left behind. I was reflecting on what it takes to bring clean water and safe toilets to the most vulnerable children and communities, and how reaching these communities often means travelling long distance through difficult terrain and often dangerous roads. But to ensure no one is left behind, we have to have the courage to go where no one wants to go.
One memory from more than 10 years ago stands out for me in particular. I remember vividly taking four flights from my home country, followed by a one day jeep ride on slippery, hilly terrain to a project office based in West Papua, Indonesia and then an 8 hour round trip by foot on steep terrain to a community centre where WV established a day care centre. Seeing how our work was changing people’s lives in such a hard to reach location is the most memorable moment in my life. It brought me such a great sense of satisfaction although the journey was tough, and I felt so inspired to do even more to bring water and sanitation to vulnerable people upon my return. And I was recently reminded of this journey on a visit to Ende, Flores in Indonesia with a corporate partner — we travelled hours to a school accessible only by a pick-up truck — to see how a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project will change the lives of students in a remote school.
The WASH team from World Vision (WV) sometimes goes to extreme lengths to ensure that the most vulnerable children and communities in fragile contexts have access to sustainable clean water, sanitation and hygiene. WV’s Global Strategy, OurPromise, deepens its commitment to the most vulnerable children by expanding its presence in fragile contexts in places like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, where an increasing number and proportion of the world’s most vulnerable children are found. In fragile contexts, children suffer extreme levels of violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Political and social pressures make them vulnerable to conflict and has fractured the institutions that should protect children. WV’s Global WASH Strategic Framework affirms WV’s commitment with a vision to ensure that “every child in WV programme areas has sustainable clean water, dignified sanitation and practices healthy hygiene behaviours,” by 2030, and this includes children in fragile contexts.
Ensure Children’s Access to Clean Water in Iraqi Camps
“To ensure that children, families and communities in fragile contexts have access to clean water, first the focus needs to be on assessing the vulnerable in communities who often are missed,” said Michael Wicker, WV Humanitarian WASH Specialist. “This includes giving a voice to those living in informal settlements such as unfinished buildings, the child or female-headed households, the elderly and persons with disabilities.” World Vision ensures that there is access to water for all. A water supply project that balances between host and displaced communities is important for cohesion in communities. An example of such work is a water supply project that brought access to clean water in a Yezidi camp community in Khanke Camp, Iraq and also the nearby host community which was struggling to support an almost doubled population. It was due to this project that a child like Rana gets to enjoy clean water to drink. Another girl aged 8, named Rawan, who lives in Hassansham U2 Camp, took it upon herself to teach other children in the camp about the importance of good hygiene practices because she had observed and followed local hygiene promoters keenly every week. Empowering a child like Rawan benefits the whole child community.
Giving Rohingya Refugees a Slight Comfort
The recent conflict in Myanmar forced approximately 706,000 Rohingya to flee their homes to safety in Bangladesh. The story of Roshida and her children is just one of those heartbreaking stories. Their life was dramatically changed for the worse in 2017 when they were violently uprooted from their home in Myanmar and Roshida’s husband was killed. Life in the early days at the refugee camp in Bangladesh was far from life in Myanmar. Roshida was unable to provide even basic needs for her children. She was concerned about her and her children’s safety while going to relieve themselves, bathe or collect water in nearby stream because there were no water points, or sanitation facilities set up yet. They would not bathe for up to two days; Roshida had to accompany her children every time they wanted to wash or relieve themselves. She waited till dusk or dawn before she would go to the stream to wash herself. Conflicts such as this put women and children at the highest risk of exploitation and abuse. Roshida and her children’s lives were improved when WV came together with other agencies to help Rohingya families like Roshida live a dignified life by setting up water and sanitation facilities, provided hygiene training and set up child-friendly spaces where children could come and play. While their life has improved, they are far from being able to return to their home.
Afghanistan’s First Reverse Osmosis Solution to Bring Clean Water
Working in fragile contexts means braving all sort of challenges but community acceptance of WV allowed its staff to bring water to communities in one of the most dangerous locations that had never had clean water. In Afghanistan, WV is working in hard-to-reach locations in the insecure province of Badghis in the Western Region. There are very few Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) working in this area. WV is the only NGO with a comprehensive presence across the entire province, including in areas controlled by Armed Opposition Groups (AOGs). In several districts, there is very little surface water or rainwater available for communities. The only water source is snow-melt which is becoming increasingly scarce, and groundwater which is highly saline. Rosanna Keam, WASH Sector Lead of WV Afghanistan, shared that: “most communities travel very long distances in search of meagre surface water. Afghanistan has just experienced one of the worst droughts in over 80 years so the challenge of finding surface water has been even more pronounced, with hundreds of thousands of people being displaced in search of food and water.”
In 2017, WV piloted the first community-managed solar-powered reverse osmosis unit in Afghanistan, with support from the local private sector, bringing clean water to 700 families (approximately 4,900 people). Keam added: “without such support, these communities would have no other alternatives as there is no other feasible technology to provide clean drinking water. Now children like 14-year-old Suleiman will no longer have to travel for four hours with his donkey to collect unsafe water.”
Challenges
One of the challenges to providing safe water to everyone is ensuring access to water for vulnerable groups, including the disabled. This takes additional time and money. Physical barriers can easily be addressed to supply WASH facilities to marginalised groups such as people with disabilities, and inclusive WASH initiatives that include them in the design phase can also socially empower the person and can have an impact on attitudinal barriers for the person with disabilities and their society.
Opportunities
As the world is becoming more urbanised with already almost 50 percent of the population in cities, there are huge opportunities in providing universal water coverage to all. As water infrastructure is developed on a greater scale in urban centres, the impact can be increased. There is also a future opportunity in supporting the local communities in ensuring water systems are sustainable. Some aspects of sustainability are the finance and social side (fees are collected properly and managed to ensure long term maintenance) and the environmental side where water is affordable but not mishandled. Opportunities for NGOs like WV exist in promoting behavior change with its partners for better management of water in households confronting climate change. “Water is a basic building block to life,” says Michael Wicker. “Every person deserves to have fresh water to drink, wash, cook and clean, wherever they live.”
World Water Day
This March 22nd, join the World Water Day campaign by sharing on social media and raising your voice for marginalised groups who don’t have access to clean water. Check out the WWD website to join the campaign and for more resources.
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where we’ll be sharing stories of how water is transforming lives for marginalised and hard to reach communities and those in fragile contexts.
And if you want to learn more about World Vision’s work to ensure people with disabilities are not left behind, please sign up for this upcoming webinar on disability inclusive WASH taking place on April 4th. Find out more and register here.
Article was written by Phearak Svay, Asia P3 Hub’s Senior WASH & Partnership Advisor, with contributions by Michael Wicker, Rosanna Keam, and Jaya Myler.
Phearak has been in the NGO sector for over 25 years. He builds and manages partnerships with corporates, startups, investors, academia and non-profit organisations to address water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues in Asia Pacific. Before joining Asia P3 Hub, he worked for Save Children Australia (SCA) where he managed programs across Health, Education and Child Protection in South Asia and Africa. Prior to that, he spent 12 years with World Vision in Australia where he managed and led a portfolio of various programs in diverse thematic areas across Asia.
Phearak also has extensive experience in managing numerous WASH projects throughout the Asia Pacific region, including managing a US$12M WASH Program for World Vision Australia across three countries in three regions. He holds a Masters degree in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland, Australia and Bachelors in Education from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He currently serves as Director of the International Water Centre Alumni Network (IWCAN) Board.
