(ERGO) – The opening of a new well in his home area has enabled Said Adan Farah and his family of 11 to return to their village of Qaar-id in northern Somalia’s Bari region following their long migration journey in search of affordable water.
Earlier, he lost 130 goats to the drought and could not afford the water being sold commercially at $150 a tank, so he moved 60 kilometres away to Qhardo in the northeast hoping to save his remaining 70 goats.
However, the 400-metre-deep well with watering troughs implemented in Qalwo by Puntland water development agency with support from Save the Children and USAID has brought many families like Said’s back to this area on Bari’s border with Sanag.
Local elders managing the well set a price of $0.25 per barrel of water so that income can be generated for maintenance.
“There was a severe water scarcity, but now there are water tankers coming here to get water, and also small cars come for water. This well has been beneficial to us beyond belief! The water is not that expensive, it is affordable,” Said told Radio Ergo.
“We used to water the livestock in groups of 20 or 30. Whoever has 100 goats or camels would be very exhausted after the daunting watering task. Now the water is accessed easily [at the troughs], the livestock are released at once and the herders just stand behind them singing.”
Ayaan Saytte, a mother of five living in Qalwo, said they depended on seasonal water catchment areas storing rainfall, but due to the drought those sources were dry.
“The water in this well has made a big difference in our lives and we thank God. We have water taps near our villages now. We fetch enough jerry cans of water for our daily use. We can now wash our clothes, cook and even bathe each day. We are no longer worried about water shortage,” she said.
She noted that the local health centres and the schools have also been connected to water from the well. Small children used to trek long distances to get water during school break time.
“It was tough for the children to stay at school. Sometimes they used to miss classes helping their families fetch water from far flung areas. There have been incidents where children would go to the water dams and fall in, so their families received their lifeless bodies. We used to be worried when our children were out of school because we feared they might fall into the water ponds,” she said.
One of the local elders in charge of the well maintenance, Farah Mohamud Ibrahim, told Radio Ergo that between 300-500 families including some from nearby villages, as well as more than 2,000 livestock, get water from the Qalwo well every day.
