WASH Response in Aleppo and Hama Oxfam proposes for a 12-months humanitarian response in the IDPs amp host affected locations in 2 governorates: 1) Southern rural Aleppo: Jebel Saman, AsSafira, and Tall Ed-daman sub-districts in Esan, Rasm Bakro, Kadmieh Blas, Kafer Abid , Mushrift al Merij and Mlehieh communities with 15,000 beneficiaries and 2) Northern rural Hama: Suran sub-district in Suran amp Tiba Al Imam communities with 25,000 beneficiaries. 

The project responds to the communities’ critical needs of safe water due to damaged high water tanks, lack of water pipeline networks, reliance to untreated trucked water from private sellers, unsafe disposal of solid wastes risks to COVID-19 and WASH-related disease transmission due to poor hygiene behaviours and inability to afford hygiene essential items. 

This project will meet the lifesaving WASH needs of 40,000 men, women, boys, girls, elderly and disabled people in locations with WASH needs severity scales of 4 and 5 in underserved areas. This is aligned with SHF's allocation strategy paper, targeting priority communities and prioritizing eligible actions. All the safety measures will be applied during the project as per Response Plan for COVID-19. 

The project has two outcomes: 1) Support to water, sanitation/sewage, and solid waste management systems to ensure regular services for affected people in Syria, and 2) Deliver humanitarian WASH supplies and services and improve hygienic behavior and practices of most vulnerable people. 

Under Outcome 1, the project will reach 8000 people with improved access to water as a result of the equipping Jewar EL Ward Pumping station in Tall Ed-Daman sub-district with a solar system to support the water system, and light rehabilitation of water network in the same areas. In addition to rehabilitating the high water tank in Esan – Jebel Saman subdistrict.    

In Hama, Suran sub-district, the proposed rehabilitation of the damaged/non-functional high-water tank with 300m3-storage will provide 20 l/p/d to 25,000 people complementing the services of existing water networks and Al Webdeh pumping station recently rehabilitated by Oxfam in the area. This will address the currently insufficient and unreliable water rationing to Suran and Tiba Al Imam communities to produce consistent water pressure throughout the distribution system for regular sufficient supply. 

Oxfam will support the local municipalities in southern rural Aleppo to overcome the poor solid waste management issues by distributing 125 waste bins to 15,000 people, to minimize the wastes disposed openly that creates vector breeding grounds for leishmaniasis disease. This will be reinforced by community-led cleaning campaigns, so that an environmentally clean community will be kept and free from vectors risks.

Under Outcome 2, the aim is to improve the risky hygiene behaviors of 15,000 people in southern rural Aleppo through participatory awareness sessions tailored to different sex and age groups, addressing barriers to safe preventive actions against risks to endemic WASH related diseases, adoption of handwashing, menstrual hygiene management and COVID-19 safe measures which will be informed by perception tracking. The lack of access to essential gender snsitive hygiene items due to inability to afford them by vulnerable households will be addressed through distribution of hygiene kits and menstrual hygiene products.

Oxfam will implement the project directly in collaboration with the LWE, WASH sector, other actors and the local authorities to ensure access to communities with approvals for the implementation of the activities. Oxfam’s implementation team will compose of area manager, project manager, project team, coordinators, support staff, site engineers, volunteers and private contractors.