Water crisis leaves families in central Somalia’s Mudug region desperate

[AussieHustler]

Nadifo Muhyadin Hassan’s family survives on the roughly five litres of water a day that she manages to beg from neighbours.

She asks those who can afford to buy water from the commercial tankers visiting their village of Seemere in central Somalia’s Mudug region to spare a few drops.

“If you have to beg for water you can never get enough. The small amount I get doesn’t last long. If you use it to cook, there’s nothing left,” Nadifo told Radio Ergo.

Sometimes the children cry and I go begging for water to prepare tea but come back with nothing.”

WarsameElmi Omar, chief of Seemere, told Radio Ergo that villagers have been facing water shortages since the borehole pump broke down three weeks ago.

“The borehole was the only one in the village. There is no water, the pump developed mechanical problems and fell inside the borehole. There is no water for both people and livestock,” the chief said.

The village, 37 km west of Jariban, hosts over 1,300 families including pastoralists and small scale traders. The price of water is high.

“One barrel of water costs $15, whilst a water tanker with a capacity of 50 barrels from Jariban town costs $300 because the road is rough at the moment,” Warsame said.

A number of pastoralists have moved away from the village to the town seeking water.

According to the chief, the village authorities contacted Puntland’s water ministry and were told that Puntland State Agency for Water Energy and Natural Resources would replace the pump.

Nadifa has five goats left from the family’s original herd of 100. She makes40 Somali shillings ($1.6) from the sale of the goats’ milk, but fears they will die soon if they don’t get more water.

Meanwhile, in Ba’adweyn village, 200 km from Galkayo, villagers are suffering similarly severe water shortages after the boreholes and reservoirs dried up.

Ali Hassan Farah, a father of nine, struggles to get water for his family and 100 goats. He said the locals have dug the borehole deeper and deeper, trying to access water, but the earth is dry.

“You can’t get enough water for 100 goats. It takes a long time to get any water at all because the boreholes are hand-dug and sand has blocked them up, so we have to remove the sand to get even a very small amount of water out,” said Ali.

Ba’adwayn chief, Ahmed DahirAbdullahi, told Radio Ergo that the water crisis in the village has affected many families, forcing them to flee in search of water elsewhere.

https://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2019/...central_somalia_s_mudug_region_desperate.aspx

A solar powered average borehole pump costs of $1,500. How come a whole state can't dig a water well for it's subjects? Maybe it spent it's meagre resources on the clan militias and the rest has been siphoned by the ministers, deputy ministers and department heads. The problem with clan enclaves.

 

[Thegoodshepherd]

@AussieHustler the problem is that there are simply too many settlements for the state to provide the full suite of services to. If Puntland actually tried to provide every single settlement with water, electricity, a school and a clinic; its budget would cover a maximum of 5-10 cities/towns.

There are bound to be shortcomings due to the fact that resources are limited by the fact that the state does not have the revenue.

 

[Bohol]

@AussieHustler the problem is that there are simply too many settlements for the state to provide the full suite of services to. If Puntland actually tried to provide every single settlement with water, electricity, a school and a clinic; its budget would cover a maximum of 5-10 cities/towns.

There are bound to be shortcomings due to the fact that resources are limited by the fact that the state does not have the revenue.

The solution is to move them into big towns.For example evacuate the people in this village to Jariban. There is no need for so many villages just make them grazing lands.

 

[repo]

Urbanization is the solution as Bohol said. Some of them would rather stick to the nomadic lifestyle but this is one of the consequences. They also dig by hand as it says in the article, how far can that take them when it's unsanitized and the boreholes are shallow and unstable.

 

[jamal9]

"
According to the chief, the village authorities contacted Puntland’s water ministry and were told that Puntland State Agency for Water Energy and Natural Resources would replace the pump. It has been more than 2 months now."

cheapskate p/l can't even repair a single borehole.

 

[AussieHustler]

These people aren’t asking for schools, hospitals, food or running water, just a damn well which their lives depend on. How will you house them in major towns and attend to their needs? Do a town like Jariiban have the infrastructure to host the people of all nearby settlements or you will just dump them there? Dig them wells and they will be self sufficient in their own habitat and won’t require charities or Aid agencies to help them. I’ve seen the corruption that goes on there first hand and I can confidently attest to the fact that we Somalis are the most corrupt people on earth. No wonder then, we’ve won that title for many years in a row.

 

[Ras]

These people aren’t asking for schools, hospitals, food or running water, just a damn well which their lives depend on. How will you house them in major towns and attend to their needs? Do a town like Jariiban have the infrastructure to host the people of all nearby settlements or you will just dump them there? Dig them wells and they will be self sufficient in their own habitat and won’t require charities or Aid agencies to help them. I’ve seen the corruption that goes on there first hand and I can confidently attest to the fact that we Somalis are the most corrupt people on earth. No wonder then, we’ve won that title for many years in a row.

Moving them to towns and cities is the only long term feasible option.

Even if you dig a well for them that won't last and they'll still have shitty lives.

They mainly live of pastorialism so we need to build the solution around that.

Maybe a subsidized farm that provides them with just enough animal feed to maintain their previous lifestyles.

A single hectare of farm land could yield enough animal feed for a family.

There's enough water for irrigation in some regions of Somalia to cover those most in need.

A couple hundred million would pay for all this ($200/ha).

Organize their live stock requirements and help them increase its value and the government could take a small cut.

In return they'll have to do some jobs in those towns and cities for the water and feed.

Those towns economies would shoot up because of the expected social mobility that will happen through people looking for better opportunities.

Their kids also get access to better education and health care (even if limited).

You'll increase Somalia's GDP per capita to over $1,000 overnight.

The government would rake in more tax revenue because of the millions of new participants in the formal economy.

This would end up paying for the subsidy.

Leaving them in countryside is a burden on our economy, security and limits the future of our next generation since 80% live there.

This also forces AS out the countryside since they'll have fewer people to harrassed for food or recruitment.

 

[Crow]

"
According to the chief, the village authorities contacted Puntland’s water ministry and were told that Puntland State Agency for Water Energy and Natural Resources would replace the pump. It has been more than 2 months now."

cheapskate p/l can't even repair a single borehole.

The article says that's it's been three weeks. You only made the two months up because your capital city has been waiting for water for thirty years.

 

[AussieHustler]

Moving them to towns and cities is the only long term feasible option.

Even if you dig a well for them that won't last and they'll still have shitty lives.

They mainly live of pastorialism so we need to build the solution around that.

Maybe a subsidized farm that provides them with just enough animal feed to maintain their previous lifestyles.

A single hectare of farm land could yield enough animal feed for a family.

There's enough water for irrigation in some regions of Somalia to cover those most in need.

A couple hundred million would pay for all this ($200/ha).

Organize their live stock requirements and help them increase its value and the government could take a small cut.

In return they'll have to do some jobs in those towns and cities for the water and feed.

Those towns economies would shoot up because of the expected social mobility that will happen through people looking for better opportunities.

Their kids also get access to better education and health care (even if limited).

You'll increase Somalia's GDP per capita to over $1,000 overnight.

The government would rake in more tax revenue because of the millions of new participants in the formal economy.

This would end up paying for the subsidy.

Leaving them in countryside is a burden on our economy, security and limits the future of our next generation since 80% live there.

This also forces AS out the countryside since they'll have fewer people to harrassed for food or recruitment.

@RasCanjero

That is a fabulous long term plan which has the potential to solve the multi faceted complicated problems faced by our people, but since we are divided into clan enclaves and each enclave are responsible of their deegaan, what is required now is to address the imminent problems that these people face which is lack of water. Up until now, the local and regional economies is based on pastoralism and anything that disturbs this economy would result in mass starvation and disruptions to the local/regional economy. They should invest in digging more wells for these communities as a short term solution.

 

[Ras]

@RasCanjero

That is a fabulous long term plan which has the potential to solve the multi faceted complicated problems faced by our people, but since we are divided into clan enclaves and each enclave are responsible of their deegaan, what is required now is to address the imminent problems that these people face which is lack of water. Up until now, the local and regional economies is based on pastoralism and anything that disturbs this economy would result in mass starvation and disruptions to the local/regional economy. They should invest in digging more wells for these communities as a short term solution.

What do you describe as short term?

6 months?

A political cycle...5 years?

We're just kicking the can down the road while kids in those environments grow from kids to teens without any access to better opportunities.

Those clan enclaves only hold on people is the current pastorial ecology (access to water and pasture wherever your clan has power).

However if we grow the animal feed a growing season in advance and build the storage silos we could move those people to larger towns without inconveniencing them too much.

The only thing stopping us is capital to cultivate the hundreds of thousands of hectares of idle farm land and political will to spend it.

A year later we could solve our food insecurity issues as well as add a huge boost to our economy.

If just 50% of the pastorial population just works part time in those towns we could add billions to our GDP within a year.

The industries that just come out of the farming part of it could lead to a lot more.

This all means more jobs and opportunities for everyone.

This also creates franchised groups of people that won't tolerate corruption or incompetence in governments unlike the masses of nomads right now who only care about the rain.