Water Trucking: Helping a Working Mum in Taizz, Yemen, Spend More Time with her Children

said Alhan, a 28-year-old single mother currently displaced in Al Beerain displacement site, located in Taizz governorate’s Al Ma’afer district. 

When fighting reached their doorstep three years ago, Alhan and her children, parents and siblings had to leave their home to travel over 26 kms to safety. They brought as many of their farm animals as they could. 

Since then, life has not been easy for Alhan. Deserted by her husband, she had to raise and provide for her four young daughters alone by selling clothes in villages near the displacement site. 

When the family arrived at the site, they quickly realized that living there would be nothing like home. They built a single shelter out of wood and tarpaulin, which the entire family – more than 10 people – squeezed into at night; they did not have the resources to build anything more substantial. Not used to such poor living conditions, and spending more time out in the open and enduring the rain, wind and dust, the family members became ill for long periods. When the extended family was finally able to move into separate shelters a few months later, things did not improve.

A major lack of water was plaguing all of the site’s residents. The closest water source was a farm well, which was a two-hour walk away. Each day, mostly women and children had to rise early to make the long journey, only to then stand in a queue for another three to four hours waiting to fill their 20-litre jerry cans. The two-hour walk back carrying the heavy jerry cans was always more difficult. 

Sometimes, the displaced community would arrive at the well only to find they could not collect any water and would have to return home empty-handed. Occasionally the well would close during the dry seasons, and other times it was closed due to people fighting over the limited water. 

This lack of water led to health and sanitation concerns for the community, including the spread of cholera.

With no water for their farm animals, Alhan’s family reluctantly had to sell them. But this only added to Alhan’s burdens, as the animals were the family’s source of income.

Alhan described her exhausting daily routine: “I sell clothes for a merchant and receive a daily wage. My day would start by leaving my daughters at the site and taking a ride to the merchant’s store in Al Nashmah city. I choose the pieces I will sell, then I take another ride to nearby cities to sell the clothes. I would go home around 1 pm and start cooking food for my daughters. Then I would go fetch water and be gone until 5 pm or 6 pm. I had been doing this for three years in a row.” 

Having to work and then collect water, Alhan was concerned about how long she was leaving her four young daughters alone at their shelter; the oldest is only 13. It was a daily struggle for her to find a neighbour to watch over her children while she was away.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) collaborated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to respond to the Al Beerain displacement site’s water needs. IOM began trucking water to seven established water points across the site, giving nearly 225 families easy and safe access to water. This not only solved the water problem, it also helped create peace among the residents.

Ayoob Zabl is a Roving Field Engineer with IOM Aden covering this intervention in Taizz. He explained: “The well in the farm used to function only for a couple of hours a day, resulting in many conflicts between people over water, and fetching water was so time and energy consuming for the displaced people. Now that they have seven water points, things have greatly changed and there are no more conflicts among people.” 

With water now available, Alhan can spend more time with her daughters, taking good care of them. She was also able to buy a cow, which is now seven months’ pregnant and in good health. 

“We cannot survive without water, and we always pray that the water support continues. We feel happy that we have water, and it feels more like home now,” said Alhan.

Alhan works hard to raise her daughters well, supporting their studies and providing them with all they need. But she still hopes to one day upgrade her makeshift shelter by adding a front door so that she and her daughters can feel safer at night.

IOM is working to solve the water problem at the Al Beerain site by installing a water solar pump in one of the site’s wells, constructing a main water tank and connecting a water network that delivers water from the well to the site. Through KSA support, IOM conducted water trucking activities in nine displacement sites in Al Ma’afer and Al Shamayteen districts in Taizz, benefiting nearly 5,300 people. As part of its COVID-19 mitigation measures, IOM installed over 220 handwashing facilities in these sites, benefiting more than 6,360 people.