Humanitarian Action for Children 2021
A total of 623,995 people in humanitarian situations were reached with life-saving access to safe water (76% of
the target). UNICEF's emergency response included different approaches and interventions to deliver clean
and safe water supply services through rehabilitation of existing water facilities, drilling of new boreholes and
installation of handpumps and solarized systems, water trucking in the Juba internally displaced person (IDP)
camps, and support in the operation and maintenance of water yards, and surface water treatment (SWAT)
systems. This achievement excludes the households reached with safe water from the provision of household
water treatment chemicals through the WASH core pipeline.
As part of ensuring continuity of water supply during the COVID-19 pandemic, water treatment chemicals were
provided to ensure safe water to an estimated 400,000 people connected to the South Sudan Urban Water
Corporation water network in Juba, Wau, and Bor. UNICEF continued supplying water to the urban areas of
Malakal and parts of Jonglei and Upper Nile State through emergency SWAT systems. Hygiene promotion
activities were accelerated aimed at combating the spread of COVID-19 as well as preventing outbreaks of
WASH-related diseases. In total, 473,312 people were reached with key messages.
The extensive flooding caused disruption and damage to WASH facilities in addition to displacement. With the
impacts of climate change causing large scale annual flooding events, UNICEF established anticipatory
agreements with NGO partners to rapidly respond to flood displacement needs. UNICEF was able to much
more rapidly deploy the more durable solutions for repair of water points, installation of emergency water
facilities, and support to communities for emergency sanitation facilities.
In response to the food insecurity and malnutrition crisis in South Sudan, UNICEF supported WASH facilities in
nutrition treatment centres, targeting the 10 priority counties in Northern Bar Ghazal, Warrup, Jonglei, and GPAA
where malnutrition rates were highest. Activities included construction or rehabilitation of latrines, repair of water
points, installation of handwashing facilities, and construction of new water points in health facilities and
communities with high levels of global acute malnutrition (GAM); and provision of hygiene non-food items (NFIs)
and household water treatment chemicals to caretakers and mothers of malnourished children. UNICEF also
supported WASH in schools as part of efforts to return children back to school after the impacts of COVID-19.
UNICEF, as a member of the WASH Cluster former PoC transition working group, is working with partners to
provide more sustainable services as part of the transition to IDP camps. This includes shared latrines rather
than communal latrines, water through the centralized network in Juba, and handover of hygiene facilities to
community members. Solid waste management and sewerage desludging continued, as part of sanitation
services supported by UNICEF in the IDP sites of Juba and Bentiu for 50,000 individuals in the early part of
2021 until services were discontinued.
UNICEF began a partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) to incorporate electronic restricted
vouchers for water delivery utilizing its SCOPE beneficiary and transfer management platform and International
Organization for Migration (IOM) biometric registration in the Juba IDP camps. Water trucking continued in the
Juba IDP sites as the kiosk construction and trainings for kiosk attendants commenced to operationalize the
water voucher system from the centralized network in 2022.
UNICEF is actively innovating for climate change adaptation, and in emergency contexts piloted elevated
latrines - constructed with the participation of households - as a flood adaptation measure. This includes using
local materials for the construction of the substructures and raised superstructures to avoid collapse and
flooding during the rainy season. Similarly, UNICEF piloted elevated handpumps through humanitarian
programmes in food insecure counties with regular flooding incidences. This is now being disseminated as
climate adaptation good practice for the WASH Cluster's 2022 strategy. UNICEF will continue to pilot this
infrastructure with different partners to define a best fit model that has high levels of community acceptance.
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