Emergency WASH Assistance to IDPs and Conflict-Affected Populations in Taiz Taiz City is currently facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the country, as fighting continues in the urban center despite the cessation of hostilities. As a result of rapid assessments conducted by Mercy Corps staff on the ground, combined with reliable secondary data, Mercy Corps, in collaboration with YFCA, is proposing effective and timely lifesaving WASH interventions in Al Ta’iziyah, Al Mudhaffar, Al Qahera and Salh districts in Taiz city as well as Dhi Al Sufal district in Ibb, to reach and assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) and conflict-affected vulnerable households. The target populations’ most urgent unmet needs include access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Mercy Corps and YFCA proposes to directly assist 5,700 of the most vulnerable households (HH), including primarily IDPs and conflict-affected populations. The two implementing partners will, as always, pay particular attention to reaching all vulnerable groups and members of the community, including widow- and child-headed HHs, people with disabilities, elderly, and marginalized populations. IDPs represent 90% of the total of 39,900 targeted individuals.

During the 4-month emergency intervention, Mercy Corps will focus on the daily provision of access to safe drinking water through water trucking to 5,700 HHs, combined with distribution of jerry cans in order to ensure that individuals’ minimum need for water is met together with safe water transport and storage. Mercy Corps will also support basic rehabilitation works on public water points and sanitation facilities in 7 locations, including those of health facilities inside the enclave (Salh and Al Mudhaffar districts), as well as in public facilities hosting IDPs outside the enclave.

With complementary funding Mercy Corps is supporting city-level cleaning campaigns through the Taiz City Cleaning and Improvement Fund as well as community-level waste collection to urgently restore basic sanitary conditions for the conflict-affected population and in parallel will educate beneficiaries to adopt adequate hygiene behaviour through hygiene promotion activities and distribution of mosquito nets and basic hygiene items to the target households. All this is part of Mercy Corps’ holistic approach to ensure access to safe water and sanitation and to mitigate WASH hazards at point-of-use as well as the onset of diseases in and around Taiz City where IDPs are concentrated. 

For all activities, Mercy Corps and YFCA use participatory community based targeting processes which are highly effective in identifying the most vulnerable HHs eligible for assistance, including those with female-headed HHs, the disabled, the elderly, and children. As women in Yemen generally have the main responsibility for health, child care, hygiene education, water, and sanitation provision, ensuring their active participation and engagement in programs is key to Mercy Corps’ approach.
In order to avoid overlap of beneficiaries and operations, close coordination will continue at the sub-cluster level, with INGOs such as Oxfam, and local government authorities.

It is worth noting that despite the highly insecure environment in Taiz City, YFCA has been operating both inside and outside the enclave and Mercy Corps remains the only INGO with an office and teams both inside and outside the enclave in Taiz. In the WASH sector alone MC has until now facilitated the removal of over 8,750 tons of trash in Al Ta’iziyah, Al Mudhaffar and Salh districts, distributed family hygiene kits to beneficiaries both inside and outside the enclave (including jerry cans to 1,000 households), installed 61 water tanks and continued water trucking to 5,700 vulnerable HH in Al Ta’iziyah, Al Mudhaffar, Al Qahera and Salh districts, while also trained 95 community volunteers (CVs) for hygiene promotion activities.