Vanuatu WASH Cluster activated to address water shortage

The Vanuatu national Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - WASH Cluster has been activated to address the water shortage in some parts of the country.

The activation follows a directive from the Vanuatu Council of Ministers (COM) upon receiving reports of drought conditions and water shortage in North Efate and Aniwa.

The cluster is planning its response in these affected areas while coordinating assessment reports in other severely affected areas.

For the WASH Cluster to be activated enabling it to respond to relevant WASH emergencies and disasters, direction must first come from the COM to the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) who then requests the activation of the cluster from the Director of the Department of Water Resources (DoWR).

The COM paper was released on 27 December 2019.

However, as it was already the close off financial date for the Ministry of Finance & Economic Management (MFEM), the WASH Cluster was not able to be activated until the NDMO sent a request to DoWR on 15 January 2020.

It was activated on the same day.

The COM paper outlined decisions as agreed by the COM for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management to allocate readily available funds at the disposal of the NDMO to carry out response actions in areas where reports have already been received and to carry out assessments where needed.

To respond effectively, the WASH cluster requires assessment reports to guide the planning and deployment of resources.

Meanwhile resident in drought affected areas are being advised to boil water before drinking, clean water storage (containers and rain water tanks), clean roofs where water is collected into water tanks and clean gutters and reconnect them

The WASH Cluster will be responding accordingly taking into account short, medium and long term actions.

Photo supplied Caption: Most of the people in remote islands depend on rain water collected on water tanks

     

Author: 
Tensly Sumbe