Emergency Assist Support in WASH & ENVIR In December 2013, fighting broke out in Juba in Central Equatoria and spread to other State in South Sudan, with intense fighting in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile States. Since 16 December, approximately 67,589 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in theborder region of Arua, Adjumani and Kiryandongo in Northern Uganda.  A large majority of the refugees are located in Adjumani (currently 78,435 refugees); and others are located in Arua and Kiryandongo, respectively

Refugees who have been resettled areliving in precariousconditions with limited access to safe water, and sanitation facilities, which increase their vulnerability. There are limited household latrines or bathing shelters in the settlement camps because refugees are settled into an area where they need to start many things from scratch, and most of the time they give priority to constructing a shelter.  With little or no cash to purchase shelter construction poles in the local market, refugees have resorted to cutting wood from their surrounding area. Wood is also used as cooking fuel and a source of light in their homes. These activities have translated into very visible reduction in vegetation cover and trees in the areas hosting the refugee population.

Problem description
Prior tothe refugee influx, environment experts were alreadywarning that Uganda is headed for energy and environmental crises as a result of the indiscriminate cutting of trees for wood fuel.The settlement process is already exerting a lot of pressure on the environment in West Nile  including the project target area (Adjumani) given that up to 80% of required materials for the settlement are provided by the environment (this includes timber for setting up houses, fuel wood, etc) .

Environmental degradationisamajor concern for all aid actors working in the area and host communities. The current refugee priorities of food and shelter have translated into a very visible reduction in vegetation cover and trees in the reception centres and settlement areas. Whileenvironmental degradation has been an issue before the influx of refugees, in Adjumani the state of the natural resource base is expected and is still a virgin source of conflict. The enormous negative impacts exerted on environment have also had diversecorrelating effect on gender dynamics and disparities hence an issuance that gender related activities have to be incorporated into the interventions at the refugee settlements.

This project will address selected beneficiaries within refugee and host population, schools and sub county headquarters. Particularly women and youth with various skills of establishing localized energy saving stoves (Lorena stoves). These skills are expected to support income generation and improvement in the standard of livingfor the beneficiaries even after the project ends. Other activities are geared to protecting the environment, improving living conditions through avoiding risky behaviors that may affect the environment.

In this project, CEFORD will  also workin partnership with Oxfam to  continue improving the WASH standards within the targeted settlements of Arua and Adjumani districts in terms of increasing access to safe water and sanitation facilities as well as intensified hygiene mobilization.  At thisphase of response, strengthening of the community based WASH management structures will be a key priority as this will ensure sustainable operation and maintenance of the established infrastructures and continued behaviour and practice changes.