WATER, SANITATION, & HYGIENE

WASH IN SOMALIA

DANDOR Strategy for WASH will guide our contribution to progressively realizing the human rights to water and sanitation, with a focus on priority interventions for children. The Strategy articulates how DANDOR will support communities in Somalia to achieve universal and sustainable water and sanitation services and the promotion of hygiene, with a focus on reducing inequalities especially for the most vulnerable children, wherever they are, both in times of stability and crisis.

DANDOR obligation for children. Not only are poor hygiene, open defecation, and lack of access to safe water and sanitation systems leading causes of child mortality and morbidity, they also contribute to under nutrition and stunting, and act as barriers to education for girls and to economic opportunity for the poor. WASH is essential in health care facilities, schools and early childhood development centers, but equally, these institutions offer platforms for engaging children in actions that promote behavior change related to hygiene, sanitation and water.

Poor WASH is the main cause of fiscally transmitted infections (FTIs), including cholera and diarrheal disease, which remains the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality among Children under the age of five, and the leading cause of death in Somalia. Poor WASH is also strongly associated with malaria, polio and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as guinea worm, schistosomiasis, helminths and trachoma that have a debilitating effect on children and their families.