Access to Clean Water can transform a community
Once burdened by water scarcity and fetching water from the valleys, the community of Sharaqui in the mountainous areas of Hajjah underwent a remarkable transformation when DRC Danish Refugee Council introduced rainwater harvesting and purifying stations.
Improved natural resource management has a profound impact, especially on empowering women and children..
Despite being a seemingly modest natural resource management intervention, DRC Danish Refugee Council's efforts to provide the Sharaqui community with access to clean water, had an extensive impact on communities, transforming lives, and fostering sustainable development.
In 2018, DRC Danish Refugee Council built a rainwater harvesting and purifying station in Hajjah, providing the community of 350 people with clean and safe drinking water.
The alleviation of water scarcity not only improved residents' health and quality of life but also advanced gender equality.
“Initially, our wives and young girls spent more than three hours a day going to the deep valleys to fetch water. Now the water is at hand. The women are taking care of the house while girls are going to school,” community leader Khalid Abu Salem says of the broader impact of the waterstation.
Because women and children spent so many hours getting water, they couldn't attend school regularly and women weren't able to participate in other activities, that could support the household's livelihood.
With the burden of water collection alleviated, women are now able to use their time to actively engage in agricultural activities, contributing to the economic well-being of their families.
This empowerment of women enabled them to engage actively in economic activities and freed up their time for other daily pursuits. Likewise, it facilitated children's, especially girls', access to education by releasing their time, propelling them towards a brighter future, now that they can regularly attend school.
The water-project is part of our natural resource management program through cash for work and was funded by the Yemen Humanitarian Fund.
