Provision of timely, equitable and integrated WASH’NUT services to address the needs of the target population with high number of SAM/MAM cases in the conflict affected Jebel Boma, Pibor County, Jonglei State. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) will target IDPs, host community and returnees in Jebel Boma, Pibor county, with a package of emergency WASH’NUT and GBV activities in an effort to ensure continued access to minimum, life-saving services. The WASH’NUT integrated programming approach will reduce the high GAM rates of SAM/MAM cases, acknowledging that poor WASH services are key driver to poor health and malnutrition. Since women and girls are the primary direct users of WASH services, the project will contribute to GBV mitigation among the target population. The project will implement life-saving integrated WASH’NUT activities in Jebel Boma, Pibor county, Jonglei State, targeting 20,000 beneficiaries suffering from inadequate access to safe drinking water and poor hygiene conditions. PAH intends to target beneficiaries in the following bomas: Boma, Nyaipuru, Nyat, Mauro, Laburap and Khoradep with a project designed to improve access to safe water at nutrition centres, schools, health centres, as well as raise awareness on safe sanitation and hygiene practices in order to prevent and mitigate WASH-related diseases.

PAH’s Emergency Response Team conducted a multi-sectoral needs assessment in the  location in June 2018, and concluded that no WASH partner has ongoing activities in Jebel Boma. As a result, the WASH infrastructure at the nutrition centers (operated by Real Medicine Foundation {RMF} whom we had consulted), health centres, schools and at the community-level were in poor condition hence there is a need for an urgent response. As the region has a high malnutrition level with IPC 4 classification. Our WASH response will integrate nutrition, education, FSL and health partners into the response. The project will target communities with poor access to safe water supply, unsafe sanitation and hygiene practices, areas with poor sanitation coverage and support health, education and nutrition centers with rehabilitation of WASH facilities.

The situation has been deteriorating with ongoing conflict in the region. As a result, water point infrastructure such as boreholes, water systems, and latrines and other facilities were destroyed by armed actors. Another factor to the deteriorating situation is limited humanitarian access. Hot spots have been identified by the humanitarian community, these areas are characterized by high GAM rates, hunger gaps, insecurity and significant movement of returnees and IDPs. Malnutrition and food insecurity makes communities more prone to water-related diseases, especially children under five. This is of special importance during the dry season that is starting from October. Integration with other sectors will ensure decreasing prevalence of diseases and malnutrition. Water supply and latrine facilities improvement at health, nutrition and education institutions will contribute to reduction of disease transmission, and hence make health, nutrition and education centers safe for users.

Key hygiene, nutrition and health messaging at these institutions will be conducted in coordination with partners, using the integrated tool of the three clusters of health, nutrition and WASH. With the involvement of our MampE department, the indicators will track cooperation with communities through existing beneficiary feedback mechanism, to address GBV and protection threats in WASH, and ensuring services provided meet the needs of the beneficiaries. Clear beneficiary selection criteria for WASH NFIs distribution will be put in place and clearly presented to the community.

In this project, PAH will ensure the mainstreaming of protection and accountability to affected populations, focusing on to the most vulnerable groups. PAH will ensure that services are delivered in a gender-sensitive manner and will consider the needs of different gender and age groups, the elderly, people living with disabilities.