Oxfam Canada

Published purpose

21 March 2011 - Dadaab, in northeastern Kenya, has been host to an increasing population of Somali refugees for the past two decades, now estimated at between three and four hundred thousand, in camps originally built for ninety thousand. The resulting environmental pressure has served to exacerbate pressures already felt from chronic regional drought, leaving local communities with decreasing access to adequate sources of safe water and basic sanitation and increasing potential hostility between refugee and host communities. With CIDA support, Oxfam Canada is helping to meet the water and sanitation needs of Kenyan host communities living around the Somali refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya through the repair and rehabilitation of existing wells and boreholes and the creation of new water points as needed. In addition to the direct benefits to the beneficiaries, this project is helping to reduce tensions between the refugee and host communities by mitigating a major point of friction, access to adequate safe water.