Early Action WASH Intervention for expected floods in Rubkona and Bentiu Counties in Unity State ltp style="text-align:justifyline-height:115%" class="MsoNormal"gtltspan style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif color: black"gtRecurrent floods, drought, and conflict within South Sudan continue to heighten the critical humanitarian situation where 9.4 million people nationwide and 500,000 people in Unity State are in dire need of lifesaving assistance, which is exacerbated by the Sudan crises where over 65,000 newly displaced refugees, returnees, and asylum seekers have entered the country and over 5,000 have entered Unity Statelt/spangtlta href="#_edn1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif"gtltspan style="color:blue"gt[i]lt/spangtlt/agtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif"gt. Four years of consecutive flooding have destroyed lives, livestock, farmlands, and damaged lt/fontgtltfont color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"gtwater points, leading to the consumption of contaminated flood waters and damaged sanitation facilities which have increased open defecation and risks of water-borne diseases like the recent Cholera and HEPE outbreaks. lt/fontgtltfont color="#000000" face="Arial, sans-serif"gtRubkona
County hosts over 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from across Unity State in Bentiu and 6 satellite IDP camps within Rubkona and Bentiu Towns and new Rotriak and
Tharwangyela settlements which has been impacted by previous flooding that has not receded. The area is already grappling with insufficient safe water access, inefficient water systems which are less than three liters per person per day, 2% sanitation coverage, and a lack of WASH NFIs, shelter, food, and health services. With an anticipated displacement population increase from 69,112 to 180,000 from Sudan to South Sudan with one-third settling into Unity State by September, limited WASH infrastructures and resources in health, nutrition, and education are stretched to the limit, leading to further food insecurity and extreme poverty levels, sanitation-related diseases, childhood illnesses, and cyclical violence outbreaks.ltbrgtlt/fontgtltspan style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif color: black"gt lt/spangtlt/pgt

ltp style="text-align:justifyline-height:115%" class="MsoNormal"gtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtMercy Corps (MC)lt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gt will take early action towards the expected flooding to lt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtprovide 55,000 (18,480 women, 14,520 men, 9,680 boys, and 12,320 girls) flood and conflict-affected individuals including 5,760 persons with special
needs (PSNs) who are at risk of WASH-related diseases in Rubkona and Bentiult/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gt needing immediatelt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gt, equitable life-saving WASH services. MC will support 12,934 people in Sector 1 and 19,028 in Sector 4 Bentiu IDP camp, 9,200 in Bentiu Town, 4,752 in Site D, 7,800 in Nhialdiu, and 1,286 in Ding Ding. The calculations for these targets are based on populations in those sectors which are areas MC operates and has experience in.ltbrgtltbrgtlt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtMC will provide surface water treatment
systems, rehabilitate existing water
sources with flood resistance barriers, and support household water treatment combined with water
quality monitoring to ensure that target participants access sufficient and safe water for drinking and domestic needs.lt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gt MC
will train 10 handpump mechanics and 10 gender-friendly water management committees
for locally-led and sustainable operation and mlt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtaintenancelt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gt structures. Alt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtdditionally, MC will rehabilitate and reinforce existing
latrines in flood-prone areas and construct 20 communal latrine blocks and 30 household latrine stances to ensure access to safe and dignified
sanitation facilities even during floods. lt/fontgtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtMC will procure household WASH kits including pre-positioning contingency WASH stock and WASH NFIs to distribute to at-risk populations alongside promoting hygiene and sanitation practices for adequate and equitable access to clean and safe water supply, and dignified sanitation services with integrated gender and protection mainstreaming. lt/fontgtltspan style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0) font-family: Arial, sans-serif"gtThe interventions will reduce and prevent WASH-borne and WASH-related diseases, and reduce the risk of violence against WASH facility users, especially women, children, and people living with disabilities, to restorelt/spangtltspan style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0) font-family: Arial, sans-serif"gt dignity to beneficiarieslt/spangtltspan style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0) font-family: Arial, sans-serif"gt in the expected flooding. Currently, Mercy Corps has a physical and operational presence in Bentiu and Rubkona implementing USAID-funded WASH programming with technical expertise in the WASH sector and active Master Supplier agreements for rapid procurements within short notice, which will ensure immediate activity implementation upon the awarded grant.lt/spangtltfont face="Arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"gtltbrgtlt/fontgtlt/pgtltdiv style="mso-element:endnote-list"gt

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