Lifesaving WASH Response to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and Host Communities in Shire Endasilase and Endabaguna IDP Sites in Tigray Region Following weeks of escalating tensions between regional and federal authorities, clashes erupted between the TPLF and the ENDF in several locations across Tigray on November 4, 2021. It is Nearly Six months after the outbreak of fighting and as of late March 2021, the crisis had displaced nearly 1.1 million people in Tigray and neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, according to assessments conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at 178 sites across the three regions. Approximately 1 million people are internally displaced within Tigray, while more than 45,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 19,000 IDPs were sheltering in Afar and Amhara, respectively. More than 445,000 IDPs (recently this number has increased to 564,632) were sheltering in Shire town, located in Tigray’s North Western Zone, alone, the majority of whom were displaced from North Western and Western zones, according to IOM. In addition, approximately 130,000 IDPs and 100,000 IDPs were found to be sheltering in Central Zone( Adwa) and Eastern Zone (Adigrat).

The complex and unpredictable security situation is impeding the free movement of humanitarian actors to reach and support people in need, while civilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict with ongoing forced displacement to towns like Shire, Axum and Adwa. The main road between Adigrat and Axum was blocked from 10 to 22 April due to hostilities, impacting several humanitarian convoys, including emergency food aid, as well as the provision of medical supplies to Axum and Adwa Hospitals. Humanitarian partners were forced to travel to Gondar (Amhara) and drive through Mai-Ttsebri to transport supplies to Shire .

Most rural areas in Tigray remain cut off from communications and electricity, impacting access to basic services provision including health services and water supply among others. Furthermore, disrupted communications in North Western, Central and some parts of Eastern and South Eastern Zones is causing a delay in reporting and the monitoring of progress of distribution of aid.

One year after the COVID-19 first case was registered in Ethiopia on 4 March 2020, the pandemic continues to spread unabated. The test positivity rate has been drastically increasing since February 2021, indicating higher community transmission. At present, the test positivity rate stands at 25 per cent . There is high concern in Tigray region given the fact that no surveillance activities have been carried out since 4 November 2020, at which point the Region recorded hundreds of active cases. Lack of prevention measures put IDPs and refugees living in overcrowded settings and humanitarian aid workers at heightened risk of contracting and spreading the disease. COVID-19 quarantine, isolation, treatment, and testing facilities are closed or are not fully operational due to the lack of essential resources and support. 

Protection risks and lack of access to safe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene are also still rife in displacement areas and coupled with the risk of cholera outbreak in the upcoming rainy season posing a serious health threat to the IDPs sheltered in the collection centers. 

As per the WASH gaps stated in the EHF allocation paper, the project aims to address critical WASH gaps through rehabilitation and maintenance of water schemes provision/distribution of essential life-saving WASH NFIs including water treatment chemicals construction of emergency communal latrines and bathing/hand washing facilities emergency water provision through water trucking/tankering and sanitation and hygiene promotion activities.