Children drink water in Somaliland (Joe Giddens/PA Wire)
Children drink water in Somaliland (Joe Giddens/PA Wire)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-4504228/Drought-sees-price-water-Somaliland-rocket.html#ixzz4h7wydfv3
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Hargeisa(ANN)-As famine looms across East Africa, clean water is critical – but drought has seen the price of water in Somaliland reportedly rocket by up to 3,000%.
Three years of little rain has left 16 million people facing a threat of starvation that aid agencies say is unprecedented, with grave concerns that thousands of lives could be lost.
Many rely on charities to provide for them, but in places where water can be bought the shortage has led to spiralling prices.
In parts of Somaliland, a peaceful, self-proclaimed independent state to the north of Somalia on the Horn of Africa, a 200-litre barrel of water would normally cost 50 cents (40p), according to Sabdow Bashir, from the charity Care International.
But he said over the last six months prices have soared to up to 15 US dollars (£11.60) a barrel.
Sparse rains have eased prices slightly more recently, but the rainfall has also left many facing a precarious health situation.
Mr Bashir said: “There were lots of dead animals and carcasses everywhere but after the rains, all that washed into the water reservoirs, underground storage tanks and earth pans.
So people are fearing that could lead to outbreak of diseases, that the water could become contaminated.
“People have no alternative, they are taking that water which we feel is contaminated, but they have no choice.”
But in a shallow valley just outside Borama, a town in the west of Somaliland near the border with Ethiopia, clean water springs forth.
Late last year Care International began revamping the infrastructure around a deep borehole in the Afraaga community, rejuvenating the lives of thousands.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/