Strengthen WASH preparedness and response capacity of vulnerable communities to winter floods The project responds to O3 of the WASH Cluster’s priorities: “Strengthen WASH preparedness and response capacity to the most vulnerable Palestinians”. This is linked to HRP SO 2 and 3, and the 2nd objective of this allocation strategy “sectorial intervention to mitigate the impact of restrictions and blockade”. The project will also respond to the Coastal Municipal Water Utility’s (CMWU) appeal (July 2019) to support their capacity to react to routine and sudden needs as an essential and urgent necessity, including the preparedness for winter to avoid flooding, shortage of critical equipment, materials and spare parts. This project supports WASH responders in the Middle Area and Rafah governorates with preparedness and response measures to protect the vulnerable communities living in high flood prone areas from the risk of displacement, damage of property, lack of access to public services, and public health impact through:
1) small scale storm water drainage interventions, which include installing storm water pipes, manholes, small catch-basins, rehabilitating storm water drainage systems, and disconnecting storm water networks from the existing sewage system. 
2) preparedness of storm and waste water facilities for the winter, incl. removing solid waste and sludge from the valley streams and the collapsed sand dunes from storm water collection/infiltration ponds to enhance infiltration capacity, maintenance of waste water treatment plant and sewage pump stations. 
3) Emergency response during floods includes renting heavy machinery, supply backfilling materials, hiring skilled/unskilled staff to support the emergency operations and fill the gap in the emergency needs due to lack of WASH responders’ resources. These measures aim to mitigate the effect of lack of adequate storm/flood water infrastructure, damage to existing ones, and lack of fuel/machinery required for flood response.
This project provides protective and safety clothing and emergency tools to CMWU’s staff and the 25 municipalities of Gaza to ensure that emergency workers are safe and well equipped to respond to floods. This project targets the most vulnerable communities based on a detailed flooding risk matrix, prepared by NRC between Jul and Sept 2019 in coordination with WASH Cluster, CMWU and municipalities based on the WASH responders’ reported needs and priorities and validated by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA). The findings extrapolated from this assessment were triangulated with NRC’s assessment “Mapping of Humanitarian Services at Community Level in the Gaza Strip” (Apr 2019) to ensure that community concerns are well addressed and considered at the design level of municipalities’ interventions.The communities’ needs and concerns will be acknowledged and reflected before the implementation phase with the support of NRC’s local partner “Improvement and Development for Communities” (IDCO). This collaboration will ensure active community engagement by sharing project information, involving key community members in the design/implementation of the project and supporting the active presence of women representatives.Furthermore, students from schools adjacent to the project locations will be involved through awareness sessions and distribution of printed materials about the water situation in Gaza, their role in keeping water resources and storm water systems from damages, in addition to safety measures during the infrastructures’ construction. Moreover, IDCO will coordinate with relevant municipalities to activate a complaint and feedback mechanism during implementation. This project will complement ongoing NRC storm water management interventions in the middle area, which includes installing new storm water drainage system for Al Aqsa Hospital Neighborhood, and storm water infiltration boreholes system in 5 schools, and harvesting system to utilize storm water for agricultural needs. It will also complement NRC’s RRM within the Gaza Partnership