Marib – Yemen is an extremely water scarce country and, for displaced people living in informal settlements, collecting enough water to survive is a daily struggle. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) completed the handover of water systems to communities in six displacement sites in Marib, providing better access to clean water for more than 12,000 displaced people.

The recent escalation of fighting in Marib has led to over 8,000 people being displaced in September alone, while since the end of January, a total of more than 70,000 people have been displaced. This comes in addition to a substantial number of displaced people already living in Marib, dwarfing the host community population who have welcomed them, despite increased pressure on basic services.

Marib city is overcrowded and many people have no choice but to shelter in dire conditions. Families are especially in need of shelter, water and sanitation services, and food. Of the displaced families who have recently arrived in Marib, less than five per cent have access to latrines, while 75 per cent of the displaced are living in sites in need of improved water access.

IOM and humanitarian partners are working around the clock to provide support to the displaced population and local host community in Marib, for example, through the provision of emergency relief items, water trucking, materials to build shelters and health care, among other support.

IOM worked with the local authorities and representatives of the displaced population in Marib to build water systems in six displacement sites with limited access to clean water. The construction of these water systems was made possible through EU Humanitarian Aid.

“Displaced people in Marib face a lot of challenges and their needs are high,” said Helene Regnault, IOM water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team leader in Marib.

“Clean water is vital to survival and so we worked with the community to ensure that some of the displacement sites with the worst access to water now have a safe and reliable water source,” Regnault added.

In addition to the construction of the water systems, IOM also carried out improvement of sanitation facilities in some of the sites, COVID-19 and hygiene awareness raising, and cleaning campaigns to remove rubbish.

Since January of this year, IOM has provided over 32 million litres of clean water to displacement sites in Marib, supported displaced families in building nearly 500 family latrines and provided more than 2,600 water storage tanks to families.

IOM’s WASH programming in Marib is made possible through support from EU Humanitarian Aid, USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Kuwait.

For more information, please contact IOM Yemen: 

• Arabic: Mennatallah Homaid, Tel: +967739888755, Email: mhomaid@iom.int  
• English: Olivia Headon, Tel: +251926379755, WhatsApp: +967 Email: oheadon@iom.int