Access to Clean Drinking Water and Construction of Community Latrines in Kunar Province The “Access to Clean Drinking Water and Construction of Community Latrines in Kunar Province” will be implemented across 50 new villages/communities of Watapur, Ghazi Abad, Chapa Dara, Bar Kunar, and Dangam districts of Kunar province over a period of 6 months with a total budget of $250,898. The project will directly target 28250 people across the five mentioned districts. It is important to note that OAWCK coordinated with the regional cluster and they recommended the new project should be implemented in the new villages of Watapur, Ghazi Abad, Chapa Dara, Bar Kunar, and Dangam districts. OAWCK has an ongoing project from UNOCHA/AHF in the same process, however, the target communities/villages are different for both the project. For this new project, OAWCK conducted an assessment in 50 new villages to identify the needs. The reason behind selecting the same districts is the high needs, vulnerability, and marginalization of these districts. 

Kunar is one of the most neglected provinces in terms of WASH and other aid services, that is why the project will add so much value and will ease the suffering of the communities who are facing the scarcity of clean drinking water, proper hygiene, and other. 

The project is demand-driven OAWCK conducted a needs assessment (Jan 12-18, 2022) in 50 new communities/villages of the five districts to identify the critical needs aligned to the cluster allocation strategy. As a result of the assessment, the following were the critical needs:

1. Drinking Water
 80-98% of people drink contaminated water from rivers, streams, and open wells
 Water reduced by 50%-80% in the water sources 
 People travel between 1-3 KMs to collect drinking water
 65% of people bring water by animals while 35% bring it by themselves
 85% children while 15% women and men are responsible for collecting water
 76% of people bring drinking water daily while 24% bring it on a weekly basis
 89% of people do not wash their water reservoirs while 1% wash them every 3 months
 93% of people do not filter the contaminated water before drinking 

2. Hygiene:
 80%-100% of people were not aware of proper hygiene 
 89% of people use open air for defecation while 11% have their own latrine 
 83% of people do not wash their hands while 17% wash their hands after going to the toilets
 75% of people wash their clothes once in two weeks, 20% do it on a weekly basis, 5% wash it on a monthly basis

The project is designed to respond to the above needs of the target communities. The needs are also aligned to the allocation strategy to ensure that we not only respond to the critical needs of the communities, but also contribute to the overall objective of the WASH cluster, and the AHF/UNOCHA. 

Project activities will be:
 Drilling15 new boreholes using the rotary drilling machines and compressor drilling machines 
 Constructing 15 community latrines in five districts  
 Upgrading WASH services in 15 public spaces in five districts  
 Establishing and Training 5 WASH Committees
 Distribute hygiene kits to 2500 households 
 Distribute minimum WASH packages to 250 households having SAM/AWD
 Conduct post-distribution monitoring
 Conduct 100 sessions on hygiene promotion, open defecation-free communities, and GBV/Protection. 

OAWCK is a Kunar-based local organization that is active in the province for over a decade now. OAWCK has access, good reputations, good relations with target communities, local authorities, and is very much familiar with the local context, cultural norms, and sensitivities which all collectively will contribute to the successful implementation of this project.