Water trucking in Sinjar Mountain

Sinjar Mountain is located in the northeast of Iraq in the Ninewa governorate. Since August 2014, the, when city of Sinjar was taken over by the armed group, as many as 50,000 people fled to Sinjar Mountain. Most of them have since been relocated to other parts of Kurdistan, but a little over 1,000 families still remain in the mountain, living in harsh conditions. The majority of IDPs are living in tents and makeshift shelters in spontaneous settlements scattered around the mountain.

During the preliminary assessment conducted in January 2015, JEN staff witnessed the dire needs of the community, especially in areas of shelter, food and water. In particular, the need for water access came out as one of the most urgent priorities, as the location of water wells or water tanks that received daily water delivery was far from many of the informal settlements. In addition, there were many complaints regarding the water quality, as the communal water tank was old and rusty which often contaminated the water.

To alleviate the dire living conditions, JEN has been working to improve the communities’ access to clean water. To that end, in March 2015, JEN installed 12 new communal water tanks near the settlements and has been delivering water through water trucking. Each day, trucks deliver a total of 24,000 liters of water to around 1,200 families.

Water distribution monitoring is also being done by the community representatives to ensure that the allocated amount of water is being delivered to the water tanks every day.  Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the community and its representatives and the truck drivers, JEN has been able to confirm that water is being delivered every day and there have been no complaints regarding the water quantity and quality!

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