Provision of lifesaving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) support to communities affected by drought in Garbaharey district Gedo region Somalia The proposed WASH intervention seeks to improve access to lifesaving and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene among communities affected by drought in Garbaharey district Gedo region. The project will also contribute to the reduction of mortality and morbidity, related to the poor access to WASH services for most vulnerable communities living in underserved and hard to reach areas in as a result of occasional and persistent drought among populations in Garbaharey district. This will be achieved through increased access to adequate, safe and sustainable water following the rehabilitation and construction of drought resistance water infrastructure proposed under this project, improvement of access to gender sensitive sanitation facilities in drought displaced  settlements and promoting a culture of good hygiene practices in order to reduce the related protection and disease risks especially among women, girls and children in the targeted locations. As an initial lifesaving intervention, SORDES will prioritize provision of vouchers for clean water services for 7,200 Household in the drought affected areas in Garbaharey as well voucher for hygiene kits to 8400 extremely vulnerable households to increase their household water storage capacity thereby reducing the frequent trips to water points, which will as a result reduce congestion at the existing facilities. SORDES will establish and capacity build water committees and rehabilitate 5 strategic water infrastructures whose combined water supply will benefit 7,500 individuals. To ensure improved quality of the water both at households and supported water points, SORDES will undertake initial tests and regular water treatment at source (bucket and batch chlorination). Further, SORDES will provide water treatment tablets to 3000 vulnerable households who will be sensitized about household water treatment and safe storage. SORDES will utilize the capacity of the local market by promoting market-based programming in WASH through use of vouchers (for Hygiene kits including women specific sanitary kits) and contracting suitable construction services from the local market following extensive market assessments and monitoring. To ensure community ownership and sustainability, SORDES will help establish 10 water resource management committees 50 members (30 women and 20 men) water source management committees. All the members will be trained in basic operation, maintenance, trouble-shooting and orderly access to the source. The training will be conducted jointly by SORDES staff and Hirshabelle Ministry of Energy, Water and Natural Resources staff. To instill sustained culture of good hygiene practice, the project will train and effectively engage existing 20 community hygiene volunteers recruited from the targeted locations to enable them mainstream hygiene promotion activities into the communities. The hygiene promotion intervention is expected to benefit 20,000 individuals (3,000 Men, 6,000 Women, 6000 Boys and 5000 Girls). To enable SORDES to support communities in case of a disease outbreak (the corona virus disease, AWD/Cholera, etc), SORDES will keep SHF updated on the situation in the district to enable swift modification of the project to support outbreak related activities and contribute to reduction in transmissions through robust infection prevention and control initiatives