Study of access to water in the re-organised territories of Eastern Chad
March 2010- August 2011
Groupe URD’s Observatory of Aid Practices in Chad has always had a particular focus on the provision of water, an activity which is part of humanitarian operations. With the arrival of refugees and displaced persons, access to and the sharing of water have become veritable challenges in Eastern Chad.
The massive arrival of refugees and IDPs in Eastern Chad from 2003 led to the mobilisation of the international community to provide essential services in the areas where there were refugee camps and IDP sites. Water was supplied via heavy motorized systems (pumping, storage reservoirs/chlorination, distribution). Little by little, humanitarian organizations have looked for ways to adapt to the extension of the crisis. The current study aims to support the efforts of actors who are attempting to adapt themselves to changes in the context. It will review experiences and operations aiming to establish long-term access to potable water, taking into account the current context with the predicted long-term presence of Sudanese refugees and the re-organisation of territories which has been brought about by the movement of IDPs.
Concretely, the study will analyse:
- the experiences of humanitarian actors in the different contexts of Eastern Chad;
- the approaches used by development actors to understand factors of sustainability. It will also try to identify the good practices which can be transposed to refugee camps, IDP sites and returnee and relocalisation areas.
What water supply strategies are implemented in the different contexts in Easter Chad? What results have been obtained by humanitarian actors and what dynamics exist in terms of the long-term sustainability of water supply infrastructure? Are there any good practices which deserve to be more widely known? What lessons can be learned from the experiences of development projects regarding access to water and what is their area of application? Is it possible or desirable to make social management of water sustainable and autonomous with communities whose place of residence is not stable?
