Envelope 1: Life-Saving Assistance to Increase and Sustain Access to Critical WASH Supplies and Services in  Underserved Areas of Afrin District. The proposed action will provide life-saving assistance to increase and sustain access to critical WASH supplies and services in underserved areas of Afrin district ranked as high or medium priority for this allocation. The action has been informed by close coordination with the WASH cluster on WASH needs and gaps in Raju and Bulbol specifically, in addition to detailed technical assessments of all targeted stations and a comprehensive assessment of community WASH needs. In line with the allocation and WASH cluster priorities, the action will immediately increase access to critical WASH services while also supporting the long-term sustainability of service provision through the use of grid electricity and renewable energy modalities when feasible and informed tariff systems to support operation and maintenance cost recovery in all targeted areas. COVID-19 prevention measures have been incorporated across the program design. 

The project will benefit a total of 110,106 conflict-affected people, of which 62,000  Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 48,106 host community members in Alshafiah neighborhood of Afrin City, Bulbol City and Raju City in Afrin, Bulbol and Raju sub-districts respectively. Geographic targeting and program design has been informed by WASH Severity Scale rankings, the geographic priorities of this allocation and through close coordination with the WASH cluster and bilaterally with other members, including Syria Relief and Bahar. 

The action will immediately address critical gaps in access to safe water through completion of essential electrical and maintenance works during the opening month of the action to ensure stations are operational. Essential operational and maintenance (OampM) support will be provided through to June. During this period, the tariff and accounting systems for cost recovery will be designed and rolled out with the level of OampM support gradually phased out as cost recovery is initiated. Hybrid solar power systems will be installed Maydan Ekbas water station and the Kosan pumping station in Raju sub-district from January to April 2022. Detailed, recent solar assessments have been completed to inform the design of this action, which found solar to be a viable renewable energy source for this system. This component of the action will also be informed by Big Hearts recent experience providing technical support for the installation of hybrid, solar power systems for the Jeineh water network in Atareb sub-district under SCHF WASH project 16296. While solar was not found to be viable for the remaining systems, the necessary works will be completed to ensure these stations can be powered by grid electricity. During January and February, Big Heart will complete detailed service-user mapping across targeted areas to inform the design of tariff systems for cost recovery. Mapping will be completed for all  public and private users and will assess WASH service needs, ability to pay and particularly vulnerable service users, including female- and child-headed households, People with Disabilities (PWDs) and IDPs living in inadequate shelter conditions. Building on successful experience with the design and roll-out of Cost Recovery Mechanisms, Big Heart will work with Local Councils (LCs), Water Stations, community leaders and members to design tariff systems during February 2022. These will be rolled out across all targeted areas from March 2022. OampM support for the stations will then be gradually reduced as the tariff system is rolled out, as detailed under activity 1.1.7. To maximize the impact of CRMs and willingness to pay, essential rehabilitation and improvement works will be completed to all water networks during the first three months of the action to ensure all residents are connected to the network. Network rehabilitation and improvements will be informed by the service user mapping to ensure the most vulnerable residents – including IDPs and PWDs - are connected to the networks.