(ERGO) – Drought-displaced families living in a camp outside Galkayo, in Somalia’s Puntland state, have been experiencing a severe water crisis for the past few months, since the only borehole went out of service.
The 260 families in Wadatal IDP camp, nine km north-east of Galkayo town, mostly fled here after losing all their livestock to the severe drought in 2017. They pitched camp in this area because they could not find a site nearer the town.
The camp is not served by any aid agencies, nor by local authority support. The borehole is owned by a local businessman, who used to provide free water to the camp residents. However, since he has been absent for five months due to an illness there has been no fuel for the pump and the borehole has fallen out of use.
Abshiro Diriye Kulmiye, a mother of eight, has lived in the camp since fleeing her rural home in Bitaalle area, 40 km away, after losing 180 goats in the drought. She told Radio Ergo that she has been carrying 10 litres of water on her back every day for drinking and cooking purposes.
“It’s the same burden every day. I leave at eight in the morning and spend two and a half hours carrying water, taking time for brief rests here and there. It’s a backbreaking chore,” she complained.
Abshiro cannot afford to pay the $3 per barrel charged by commercial water delivery trucks. She relies on weekly food assistance from relatives in the town. Most of the other women and men in the camp fend for themselves by engaging in casual work, such as cutting stones or collecting and selling firewood for cooking.
“I’m really worried and I don’t know what to do. Those with means have already moved into the town, but I can’t afford rent and there is no free land in town to set up a small hut or corrugated shelter in town,” she said
Jama Abdi Isse, a father of six, who was displaced from Qaydare area also by the drought in 2017, also struggle to get water.
“I don’t have money for the bajaj [three-wheeled vehicle] transport, so I bring the water on my back,” he said.
He works as a stone-cutter, selling cut stones once every 10 days. The little money he earns is barely enough for his large family.
“I only make $10 every once in a while and it is hard to stretch that income for the whole family,” he said.
His dream is to buy a small piece of land and settle in Galkayo town, but he has not yet found an affordable space. His other option is to move to one of the existing IDP camps in the town, where there are services, if the gatekeepers would allow him in, he said.
Muhyaddin Yusuf Samatar, head of social affairs at the Galkayo district office, told Radio Ergo that the local authorities are aware of the water shortage at Wadatal IDP camp and are doing their best to remedy the situation.
One of the options, he said, would be to relocate the camp residents to a new area in or nearer the town.
