Responding to Emergency WASH needs of IDPs and Vulnerable Host Communities in Nangarhar Province NCA performed a rapid WASH assessment in June 2022, targeting urgent and unmet needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and underserved host communities in Nangarhar. As a result, NCA found Hesarak and Sherzad districts as areas with the most concentration of affected and vulnerable communities where IDPs and vulnerable host communities live in difficult conditions. A majority lack access to sufficient quantities of safe drinking water, resort to open defecation (OD) due to lack of sanitation facilities and demonstrate poor knowledge of hygiene practices. Schools and health clinics don’t have access to proper WASH facilities. There are many schools and health centers with no or poor water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities in target districts.    Given this context, NCA is responding under a proposed 12-month intervention which aligns with the WASH cluster response plan in the revised HRP    2022, where Nangarhar province is a priority in terms of WASH needs. NCA will provide critical WASH services to the conflict, and drought-affected population, IDPs, and underserved host communities in Hesarak and Sherzad districts, and deliver complete WASH packages to at least six schools and four health centers. The intervention is designed to reach a total of 43,050 individuals (15,369 men, 15,821 women, 5,274 boys, and 6,587 girls).

Under this project, NCA aims to: 1) improve access of beneficiaries to a safe water supply 2) focus on influencing a change in sanitation behavior through CLTS approaches and community participation to reduce open defecation 3) promote safe hygiene practices through proper handwashing including AWD/Cholera awareness and 4) improve access of schools and health care facilities to water, sanitation and hygiene awareness to ensure proper hygiene practices. To that end, NCA will build solar-powered pipe schemes, rehabilitate existing non-functioning water wells to improve access to safe water, and establish new water wells in areas where no other water sources are available. The intervention will also include water quality testing and establishing community-level WASH committees, or strengthening existing structures, to operate, repair, and manage water infrastructures. NCA will work with schools and health care facilities, providing complete WASH packages to improve their access to basic water, sanitation, and handwashing facilities. These packages will include installation of solar powered water supply networks, upgrade/construction of gender sensitive sanitation facilities (5+1)   which includes separate menstrual rooms for girls, and installation of handwashing facilities with the waste-water greenery systems. Poor hygiene and sanitation conditions contribute to the spread of diarrhea which proportionately affect children with weak immune systems. NCA will therefore organize hygiene awareness events in schools and targeted communities, educating children and their parents in principles of personal and environmental hygiene, and encourage them to preserve WASH facilities of their communities. NCA will teach vulnerable populations best practices to avoid diarrheal diseases and other health complications. In addition, NCA will deliver in-kind hygiene kits to 2,500 families and mobilize target communities (through CLTS) to eliminate open defecation. In the meantime, 100 household latrines shall be constructed for the most vulnerable, as demonstration latrines.

This application is developed in collaboration with a local NGO partner, under NCA’s long-standing civil society strengthening strategy that aims to develop the capacities of local civil society organizations.