Emergency WASH/COVID-19 assistance for the most vulnerable people living in Jarablus District In recognition of the risks and urgent needs associated with outbreak of COVID-19 and increasing IDP population in NW Syria, CARE will leverage its technical leadership, operational experience, financial resources to provide coordinated assistance to conflict-affected communities, especially the newly displaced one living in Jarablus district. CARE aims to implement WASH activities to mitigate the risk of COVID-19, including increasing hygiene promotion, mass COVID-19 messaging at camps level, providing an increased amount of required clean water to facilitate handwashing practices. CARE will increase the amount of water to 35 L/person/day, reaching 15,250 beneficiaries. Additionally, CARE will work to encourage and facilitate this practice for targeted people living in camps and in communities and will distribute cleaning/disinfecting materials and soap through awareness-raising and behavior change activities. 

CARE proposes to support 3,050 HHs living in Old and New Zoghara Camps located in Jarablus with WASH services in this project. The camps were built by AFAD in 2017 to host IDPs fleeing conflict areas in NW Syria. Through the funds from the first standard allocation 2020, CARE extended the new camp to host 1,200 HHs in addition to the 1,850 HHs living in the old camp and improved lifesaving conditions by replacing damaged tents with new ones, insulating tents and implementing graveling and ground site preparation in addition to securing safe access to WASH facilities in consideration of COVID-19 precaution measures.

The camps are among locations with high reported cases of COVID-19. 104 cases have been recorded in the camp. CARE in coordination with the stakeholders has completed the establishment and set up process of a quarantine zone at new Zoghra camp. The quarantine zone consists of 50 tents facilitated with NFIs. Public WASH facilities have been prepared with equipment to serve the quarantine area. CARE has ensured that the quarantine zone is isolated from the camp’s remaining sectors by selecting the appropriate location and having it separated with a surrounding fence. Local authorities hold responsibility of providing necessary medical equipment and staff.

Access to water is essential for effective handwashing, which is one of the most important measures to prevent COVID-19 infection. CARE will work on securing safe access to adequate drinking water by operating water stations, providing the camp with water (35 L/P/D), provide water storage tanks for IDPs and to reduce crowdedness around current distribution points. CARE will conduct full water quality analyses on water sources in advance. Trucked water will be chlorinated and FRC levels will be checked daily throughout the entire supply chain.

Essential emergency services such as desludging, latrines, soap provision will be provided. To reduce overcrowding, improve hygiene behaviors and increase access to handwashing facilities, CARE will install new shared family latrines where Sphere standards are not met (one toilet for every 20 people), installing door locks for safety and privacy and providing appropriate lighting. CARE will also undertake minor repairs to existing latrines including quick fixes of handwashing facilities in particular and cleaning of latrines, including disinfecting communally used surfaces to mitigate COVID-19 infection risk.

For the prevention and control of infections, CARE will apply intensive hygiene promotion sessions. CARE’s hygiene volunteers will be in charge of disinfection measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in camps. Disinfection kits including soap and PPE will be distributed along with one-off hygiene kits to all families in the camp. Volunteers will be assigned to sterilizing latrines, water distribution points and WASH equipment such as water tankers using the provided cleaning materials and disinfectant liquid.