An easier life with safe and clean water
Thousands of refugees and internally displaced people in Niger and Chad were suffering from lack of water. But thanks to a little support from World Vision and the German Humanitarian Assistance, children like Fati and her community now have access to safe and clean water.
Who can imagine living without drinking water? Since the dawn of time, this precious liquid has been associated with life. Everyone knows that water is life, but this comparison really makes sense in Garin Wanzam, Niger, which is the sit of a camp for internally displaced persons and refugees affected by the severe violence of Boko Haram.
Today, Fati lives in this camp. She is 15 years old and likes to come and draw water from a borehole built by World Vision. Fati comes from the village of Djabulam in Nigeria. From a family of farmers, she explains how they all found themselves in the camp.
"One day, very early in the morning, before sunrise, they came to our village, making a lot of noise and sacking everything in their path. My family and I did not have time to take our things and we had to flee, trekking, taking various paths. It was a stampede. We were scared out of our minds; we slept out in the open, crossed several villages and arrived in Yebi and then in Bosso, two communities of Niger,’ she says.
Partial view of the Garin Wanzam Foulatari site, Diffa, Niger
Unfortunately for Fati and her family, Bosso was also violently attacked by the Boko Haram elements in 2016, forcing the family that is already weakened and vulnerable to flee a second time and to be sheltered at the Garin Wanzam site.
Lack of water increases vulnerability
The thousands of people who lived in Garin Wanzam had little access to safe drinking water and girls were at risk of traveling long distances, in a desert landscape, endangering their own physical safety.
It is for vulnerable children like Fati that World Vision provides support in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene. Access to clean, safe water is important to child and community development. World Vision works with communities to show the importance of water and helps more than a hundred people to access it.
"I like to draw water from this borehole for the quality of its water and its taste. It has no strange taste and the level of salt is satisfactory. It is good for drinking. I have an easier life now especially as I do not longer trek for five kilometres,” Fati said.
Fati and her community now have access to safe drinking water and World Vision has also implemented several activities to improve sanitation facilities with support from the German Humanitarian Assistance. More than 61 thousand people were provided with access to clean water and improved sanitation facilities such as construction of boreholes and latrines, hygiene promotion activities and kits distribution.
With the rapid increase in internally displaced and refugee populations of the Garin Wanzam site, providing clean, safe water is crucial and World Vision is working to increase the number of water points.