Abyan Assessment Report 8-9 July 2012

3.2.1 Key Findings that support humanitarian action in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

a) Water

Access to water is one of the major problems in Yemen and Abyan governorate is not an exception. There is a significant lack of adequate access to clean potable water in the south that includes Abyan governorate. Report suggests that water consumption has decreased considerably due to reduced supply and high prices⁵. The assessment shows that water is still a “serious problem”. About 90% of the communities assessed identified access to safe water for drinking or cooking as a “serious problem”. 58 % of the concerns related to water as a serious problem attribute it to availability (not enough water/water points available or storage capacity), followed by quality (issues of lack of treatment capacity), economic constraints and physical, logistical constraints (Figure 4).

Figure : Main concerns related to Water as a serious problem

At the individual community level, availability also ranked high as the primary underlying factor contributing to the problem (Table 1 in Annex C).

b) Toilets

The toilet situation in the assessed communities is not as severe as the water situation. However, 57% of the respondents identified toilets as a serious problem with people not having easy and safe access to clean toilets. Of the underlying factors, 57% attribute it to quality and 43% attribute it to availability (Figure 5).

Figure : Main concerns related to Toilet as a serious problem

Examining the responses of the individual locations as shown in Table 2 (Annex C), in Al-Husn and Al-Jool, availability ranked the highest as the main concerns related to toilets as a “serious problem”.