WATAN believes in the necessity of enhancing personal hygiene to provide a safe, healthy and stable environment to limit the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics. This has, especially, been of the utmost priority since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has witnessed successive waves that increasingly require more intervention. Thus, WATAN has continued to provide rapid solutions for all, but in the water and sanitisation sectors in an attempt to keep Covid-19 infection rates low.
These solutions were put forward at the beginning of March in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Camps involved: Afamia, Al-baraka, South’s Martyrs, Al-Eis, Al-Burj, Al-Yammah, Al-Salim, Jabal Al-Hoss, Ajyal, Old Al-Albyad, New Al-Abyad, Al-Najmah, Valley of Al-ayn, Al-Sihara group, Al-Musa, Sher Maghar, Al-Qalaa, Al-Sakia, Al-Yusuf.
Regions distributed to, in the Srian province of Idlib include: Al-Dana, Kafr Lusin, Babsaqa, Sarmada, Batabou, Hazanou, Kfar Daryan, Termanin, Burj Al-Manara.
Several activities were planned after carrying out an urgents needs assessment, with the aims of enhancing personal hygiene and establishing sanitisation networks which could accommodate more beneficiaries. These activities included:
- Providing the aforementioned camps with sterile water
- Transfer solid waste
- Emptying the liquid waste
- Distributing personal hygiene baskets
- Periodic health awareness campaigns
- Distributing garbage containers
- Building regular bathroom blocks and disabled toilets for those with special needs
- Contracting workers to clean the bathroom blocks on a daily basis
- Paving the roads
- Implementing sewage lines with additional treatment that converts waste water, to water suitable for irrigation purposes
Immediately after announcing the start of the project WATAN began providing the daily services of the solid and liquid waste removal (activities 2&3), the hygiene awareness campaigns including education about the dangers of Covid-19 (activity 5), cleaning bathroom blocks (activity 8) and additionally began preparations for the implementation for the remaining activities.
The number of beneficiaries was 7,651 families, which translates into 42,333 individuals. WATAN, who has proven as a successful leader in water and sanitation projects, plans to continue these activities and services until the end of 2021. This will result in the enhancement of personal hygiene, removal of used water which will lead to the reduction of disease. It also will conduct these projects sustainably (which is something WATAN pioneers in) as the used/ waste water removed from the camps will be converted to useful water for irrigating the neighbouring agricultural land.