Drought response project
VETAID has received funding from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for a water-tankering project to benefit pastoralists in Gedo, Bari and Karkaar regions, Somalia, who have been severely affected by the drought.
The project in Gedo is trucking water to 2,500 breeding cattle and 1,100 sheep and goats to allow them to utilise the pasture areas of Bardera and El-wak Districts. This will help to preserve the livelihood base of the community and allow them to recover more rapidly from the drought by maintaining at least some of their core breeding stock. The project is also supplying water to 3,600 pastoralist families. In addition, VETAID is carrying out the rehabilitation of water catchment structures and dispose of livestock carcasses in wells and dams.
The following excerpt from the press release issued by the Food Security Analysis Unit, Somalia shows that humanitarian operations such as this have made an important contribution to averting famine in the region:
