Improved access to safe water, sanitation  hygiene services for the drought-affected communities in Balcad district In Somalia drought has worsened significantly following three consecutive below-average rainy seasons. According to FAO/SWALIM, drought conditions are expected to worsen in the first quarter of 2022, leading to a similar situation witnessed in 2016/2017. The intensifying drought has led to water shortages, crop failures, and high levels of livestock migration and deaths. This comes only two years after a devastating drought that impacted hundreds of thousands of lives, placed additional strain on communities, stretched the humanitarian response and displaced over 300,000 people. The failure of three consecutive rains (Gu’ and Deyr in 2020 and also Gu and Deyr in 2021) resulted in severe drought that has affected thousands of people in Hirshabelle, where communities in  middle Shabelle specially Balcad District are the most affected. Generally, the Gu rains were delayed and the performance was poor in terms of coverage and distribution in most of the areas assessed including Balcad, This aggravated the already poor conditions that resulted from below-average 2021 Deyr rains. The impacts of the drought differ across all regions hence the severity and intercity differ as well from region to region however Hirshabelle region remains one of the most affected regions especially areas like Balcad and surrounding villages where communities are affected by droughts. 
This project is designed in line with the SHF 2022 Reserve Allocation response strategy that focuses on providing lifesaving intervention with a focus on undeserved and hard-to access areas to address the immediate needs of flood-affected IDP’s and vulnerable communities who lives in dilapidated and informal settlements in Balcad district with no significant support structures, and often with limited information. Balcad has large number of displaced IDPs that do not receive adequate services while it’s underserved due to limited humanitarian access. As such they are in greatest need of humanitarian services in order to access services, reduce barriers to assistance and ensure equitable delivery of services which will be offered by this project.

In order to fill the gaps Islamic Relief worldwide with funding from SHF 2022 Reserve Allocation is planning to rehabilitate  2 strategic boreholes in Balcad town and 3 shallow wells in Kurshalle,carafag and farjane villages under Balcad Districts.
The borehole will serve between 5,000 to 7,000 people while the shallow wells will serve 3000 people per each  and construction of 100 emergency latrines that will serve around 3,000 people, the project aims to tackle the effects of the droughts by providing timely and lifesaving support to the communities in Balcad district in Somalia, the intervention is in line with the needs of the community and WASH strategy, the intervention will directly support 20,000 direct beneficiaries, the project will respond to the current drought disaster and will build the community resilience through rehabilitation of strategic water wells. The project will install solar powers systems to the borehole, construct civil works including Rehabilitaton of water tanks, animal troughs. The rehabilited borehole will provide free water to the IDPS through construction of  water kiosks with pipe extension and provision of emergency water trucking to 5,000 people in Balcad district.
The affected population in Balcad are at risk of contracting sanitation related diseases, therefore, the project will construct 100 emergency pit latrines to reduce the risk of the diseases and improve sanitation services, the latrines are gender segregated, and the design will meet the special requirements of people with disability, the project will also conduct hygiene promotion campaigns focusing on handwashing with soap and production of IEC materials, 1,500 HH will receive hygiene kits.
Also, within this response, IRW is planning to distribute solid waste collection tools 1,500 and will form and train water management comm.