{"id":11793,"date":"2021-03-16T23:54:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T06:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11793"},"modified":"2021-03-17T20:21:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T03:21:56","slug":"post3-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11793","title":{"rendered":"“Pulka, where water is the source of life\u2026 and disease”, M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) International"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project Update, Paris, 16 March 2021<\/p>\n

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Violence which spread throughout Borno state, in northeast Nigeria<\/a>, has forced people like Adama out of their homes. Adama now lives in a camp for displaced people<\/a> in Pulka, a small garrison town located 115 kilometres southwest of Maiduguri, the state capital. She is only one of around 37,000 displaced people trying to survive here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be grateful that we now have water, but we don\u2019t usually have enough water when we enter the dry and hot season,\u201d says Adama.<\/p>\n

The dry, hot season in the part of western Africa known as the Sahel usually lasts from November until May. Not a single drop of rain touches the cracked earth for nearly seven months, while the Harmattan<\/em>, a dry wind coming from the Sahara Desert, brings sand and hot air during the day and cold air at night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lack of water leads to lack of resources, illness<\/h2>\n

The temperature can go from 9 to 35 degrees Celsius in a day. This extreme climate was challenging for local farmers even before the armed conflict in Borno began. The situation now, after 10 years of violence<\/a>, has worsened due to the high number of displaced people, limited farming land and clean water, and a lack of other basic resources and means to produce food.<\/p>\n

Even if people somehow manage to produce food, often they have to exchange it for water. In some places, groups are making money by selling water from pre-existing water points or those built by humanitarian organisations, to displaced people, sometimes by community leaders. Often the only water that people can get is polluted or not properly treated with chlorine, which can cause health problems, especially among children who are one of the most vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n

Organisations in charge of water and sanitation in the area recently built an artificial lake, or a \u2018pond\u2019 as it is called by locals. However, due to a chlorine treatment unit not working and no existing connection to the pumping system, the pond has had little impact, and is mostly used by people to do laundry or water their cattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem of insufficient water is very serious,\u201d says Fati, another displaced person who has settled in Pulka. \u201cWhen we have money, we buy water from the well, but if we don\u2019t have any, we have to fetch it from the pond and this makes our children sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water trucking was also introduced by different water and sanitation organisations as a temporary solution. However, logistical issues due to frequent closures on the main road to Maiduguri mean this option is not reliable, leaving Pulka residents with no choice but to use the pond. Even when there is enough water, the bigger issue is the quality of this essential resource.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Unless water and sanitation organisations in Pulka act right now, we will witness even more suffering by people there.<\/q>–SIHAM HAJAJ, MSF HEAD OF MISSION IN NIGERIA<\/span><\/div>\n
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People are trying to find a way to make ends meet<\/h2>\n

Most people do not have the arable land or water to farm or grow food in the displaced people\u2019s camps, because there is not enough space; the situation outside the camps is also too dangerous. Farming land is located on the periphery of Pulka, outside the trenches and fences that make the town more resistant to attacks and intruders, but which also cuts off people from the outside world. In such conditions, stress, tension, even conflict, among people is to be expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us with four or five jerry cans are usually asked to wait for the pushcart owners from the community to get water before we can get water,\u201d explains Maryam, another camp resident. \u201cThere are men who are in control of the water points; they are the ones that usually tell us to wait our turn in the queue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we don\u2019t usually wait,\u201d Maryam continues. \u201cWe force our way to get the water whenever the person at the water point has had their fill. And this, in most cases, leads to scuffles and injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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