Beledweyne: Emergency Relief to Flood-Displaced Families
Beledweyne, Somalia, February 2025—Beledweyne is prone to floods from the River Shabelle breaking its banks. The recurrent deluge frequently displaces thousands of families, washes away critical infrastructure, and poses severe health, nutrition, and sanitation challenges. In November 2024, the floods left a trail of destruction, marooned tens of villages, disrupted livelihoods, and escalated the risk of a full-blown health crisis.
Families that had previously fled conflict and drought were forced to seek refuge in IDP camps with limited access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. The IDP camps weren’t spared either. As the makeshift camps became submerged, families scampered for safety to higher grounds, as others tried to save the little they had to their name.
“We face great risks whenever there are floods. The whole camp is sometimes submerged. We salvage whatever we can and move to the mountains for safety,” said Dhux Abdi Dahir, a camp leader in Macruf IDP Camp.
Emergency Water Trucking
Recognizing the glaring humanitarian crisis and urgent emergency response, WARDI, in partnership with Care, launched the Crisis Modifier Emergency Project – a four-month emergency response aimed at addressing the displaced communities’ immediate health, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs – providing relief and hope to thousands of displaced families struggling to brave the floods.
Kuse Abdi Gure, 34, fled Mustahil, a border town in Ethiopia over 850km away, in 2022. Frequent droughts and subsequent conflicts drove her to Al Amin IDP camp with nothing except her six children.
“I left my hometown because of conflicts, drought, and hunger. I lost everything, including my livestock. Life at the camp isn’t easy either. We lack basic amenities such as water. Our main source of water is the river, and its water is not clean or safe.” Said Kuse.
The Crisis Modifier Project delivered safe and clean drinking water to 800 households across five IDP camps, including Arladi, Rajo Two, Maruf, El Ali, and Al Amin Two. This short but targeted intervention ensured that the IDP communities had access to safe water, while providing the beneficiaries with hygiene kits comprising soap, sanitary pads, jerrycans, buckets, and chlorine sachets to purify their water.
“We’d spend about one hour on the road in search of water,” reminisced Kuse and continued, “This hygiene kit has enabled me and my family to easily fetch and treat the water from the river. After fetching the water with the jerrycans, I transfer it to the buckets and throw in chlorine tablets and let it sit for about 30 minutes before using it.”
“WARDI also trained the water management committees from these five IDP camps on water and Disaster Risk Management (DRR), and this has greatly improved hygiene and reduced waterborne diseases such as cholera,” opined Crisis Modifier Project Officer Abdiweli Ibrahim Mohamed.
Dignified Motherhood
In addition, WARDI in partnership with CARE distributed mother-baby kits to 500 mothers to support expectant and new mothers to get safe, clean birthing kits along with baby items that enable them to have essential things they need to start motherhood.
“My husband is a casual laborer and we can’t afford baby essentials. WARDI has given me, a pack of diapers and sanitary pads, baby towels, and one toiletry pack containing baby soap, shampoo, body lotion, and baby wipes,” said Nasaba Hassan Adan from Maruf IDP Camp.
As Beledweyne and other flood-prone areas in Somalia continue to battle extreme weather conditions, timely humanitarian responses like this must be scaled up. The success of the Crisis Modifier Project underscores the critical need for sustained support from humanitarian partners, donors, and local authorities to safeguard vulnerable communities from the deadly impacts of climate-induced disasters.
Distribution of hygiene kits distributed at the five IDP camps in Beledweyne through the Crisis Modifier Emergency project. Photo | Musa Salah/WARDI
