Last year, as part of an effort to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities to ever longer droughts, CARE scaled up the installation of water pumps powered by solar panels to extract ground water in the arid highlands of Somaliland, a self-declared independent state in the north of Somalia.
In the village of Suuqsade, 30 minutes off from the road between Burco and Berbera in Somaliland, the sun is now ensuring everyone has enough water.
“Before CARE installed this solar panel pump, we had to use fuel for a generator, but we could not sustain it because of the cost. It took ten liters of fuel every day to pump. Now we have no expenses for pumping. CARE also constructed this barrier, which will help catch more water for the shallow well”, explains Abdi Odawa Shire (50), the chairman of the Village Council.
“Now we plan to extend the solar panel, so we can pump even more water”, he adds.
Even after more than two years without any substantial rain, the well still provides water for the village’s 600 permanent households, as well as a further 400 families displaced by the drought and their livestock. People come from up to 60 kilometers away for the water.
So far CARE has installed 18 similar solar powered water pumps in drought-prone areas across Somalia, and is currently seeking funding to set up more.
By Anders Nordstoga, CARE Communications Officer (text) and Georgina Goodwin (photos)
Find out more about our work in Somalia here.