Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water and Promotion of Hygiene in Kunar Province The “Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water and Promotion of Hygiene in Kunar Province” will be implemented in Watapur, Ghazi Abad, Chapa Dara, Bar Kunar, and Dangam districts of Kunar province over a period of 6 months with a total budget of $248,072. The project will directly target 33,000 people across the five mentioned 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 rapid need assessment (November 23-27, 2021) in Ghazi Abad, Bar Kunar, Watapur, Chapa Dara, and Dangam districts to identify the critical needs aligned to the cluster allocation strategies. As a result of the assessment, the following were the critical needs:
1.	Drinking Water
	Approximately 98% of people drink contaminated water
	Water reduced by 50% in the water sources
	People travel between 1-4 KMs to collect drinking water
	75% of people bring water through donkeys while 25% bring it on their shoulders
	80% children while 20% women and men are responsible for collecting water
	50% of people bring drinking water daily while 50% bring it on a weekly basis
	85% of people do not wash their water reservoirs while 15% wash them every 3 months
	90% of people do not filter water before drinking 

2.	Hygiene:
	Almost 100% of people were not aware of proper hygiene 
	92% of people use open air for defecation while 8% have their own latrine 
	90% of people do not wash their hands while 10% wash their hands after going to the toilets
	25% of people refer to local health facilities, 50% use homeopaths, 20% buy medicine on their own, while 5% do not do anything if they fall sick 
	90% of people wash their clothes once in two weeks while 10% do it on a weekly basis
	30% of people do not put their blankets/quilts under the sun for germicide, 40% do it yearly, 20% quarterly, while 10% do it on monthly basis – this is a local method used for improving the hygiene of blankets/quilts used for sleeping. 

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 goal of the WASH cluster, and the AHF/UNOCHA. 
Project activities will be:
	Repair 24 boreholes
	Construct 15 new boreholes
	Upgrade 15 public spaces 
	Forming and Training 10 WASH Committees
	Conduct an anthropological study to understand the local water management decision-making process 
	Distribute hygiene kits to 2000 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.