Emergency Response to Outbreak of Cholera/Acute Water Disease (AWD) in the affected districts in Dhamar Governorate. After more than two years of ongoing-armed conflicts and continuous airstrikes, the humanitarian situation is extremely appealing with continuous decline in the public services doubled with economic deterioration. The suffering is doubled with cash crisis and unpaid salaries for more than 6 months in most of the government institutions especially WASH and health services leading to increase the layer of vulnerability among the population who are in severe need for urgent humanitarian life-saving assistance e.g. Food, WASH and Health.
The uptick in cholera cases comes as Yemen’s already weakened health system struggles under the weight of two years of conflict. Key infrastructure, including water and sanitation facilities, are collapsing, contributing to the spread of diarrhoeal disease. The weather is also playing a role: the pathogens that cause cholera are more likely to spread in warmer weather and recent heavy rains have washed piles of uncollected waste into water sources.
The number of acute watery diarrhea (AWD)/suspected cholera cases has increased dramatically and the outbreak expanded to 18 out of 22 governorates. A real challenge in responding to AWD outbreak is that various sources give different figures and information. However, the situation is still alarming and the cholera is still spreading dramatically. According to the Situation Cholera Report on Yemen Acute Watery diarrhea/cholera outbreak 9-14 May, 2017, there are a total of 11,046 suspected AWD/cholera cases including Dhamar (4%) and Amanat Al-Asimah (38%). Out of the reported cases, 124 deaths were reported. In Dhamar only, there are 407 suspected cases, 21 of them were confirmed cases with 8 deaths. Dhamar governorate has many districts which are at risk of increased cholera outbreak and they are Utmah and Jahran districts.

This project aims at providing urgent WASH assistance to respond to and prevent the outbreak of Acute Watery Disease (AWD) in Jahran and Utmah districts in Dhamar governorate. LMMPO will contribute to the elimination and response to the Cholera outbreak through following the prevention approach which entails having integrative sets of WASH activities in support to preventing and control of infection at the DTUs, DTCs and at the HHs level. This project a group of activities which starts at assessing and mapping water sources of the affected areas/locations or villages. Also, it include awareness raising at the community level in the affected districts. furthermore, WASH related support will be provided to 16 health facilities which provide services to cases suspected or infected by cholera/AWD in the respective districts. Monitoring and ensuring the quality of water will be tested by technical staff and facilities. A feedback and complaints mechanism will be set up in this project aiming at fine-tuning the project implementation and for further programming. This project is flexible to meet the various needs that might arise during implementation in other districts conditionally, the selected districts are no-more affected or at risk of AWD. This will be in close consultation with OCHA, MoPHP, WASH and Health Clusters and other relevant stakeholders.