world water day

"Lack of drinking water is a major cause of forced displacement"

Yemeni children fill jerrycans with drinking water in Sanaa.

(illustrative image) AFP - MOHAMMED HUWAIS

Text by: Géraud Bosman-Delzons Follow

9 mins

From Ukraine to Yemen, via the Sahel or Central Africa, the issue of access to drinking water is a constant in countries at war.

And for some of them, global warming only aggravates tensions, when it is not the cause.

Interview with Guillaume Pierrehumbert, Head of the Water Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross, met on the sidelines of the World Water Forum being held in Dakar this week.

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Comments collected by our special correspondent in Dakar,

RFI: In Ukraine, the inhabitants of certain large cities such as Mariupol are sorely lacking in drinking water

Guillaume Pierrehumbert:

Yes, restricting access to water is a tactic of war.

This has a huge impact on people.

In Ukraine, where the ICRC has been working for ten years since the conflict is not new, the conditions facing civilians in several towns are becoming increasingly dire.

It is still difficult to have a clear view of the humanitarian situation on the ground.

But our team in Mariupol described the situation in the city as apocalyptic.

People live without water, but also without food, without heating, without electricity.

They urgently need respite from the violence and humanitarian assistance.

The impact I see for water in this urban war will be both immediate and long term.

Damage to water supply, sewage treatment or electricity or gas supply facilities has adverse effects on the health of already very vulnerable populations.

The lack of drinking water is a major cause of forced displacement, in Ukraine or elsewhere.

Attacks must not be directed against civilian objects, essential infrastructures must be spared, including water systems, because they supply homes, schools and hospitals.

It is vital.

The problems of access to drinking water are also critical in other ongoing conflicts in the world, in particular in Yemen... 

Indeed, the situation in Yemen remains dramatic.

It is the country that is suffering the most serious humanitarian crisis today.

We have seen the fastest deterioration in service levels.

Usually, it takes several years because of indirect impacts, such as the departure of operators, engineers, but also the interruption of supply chains for products such as chlorine.

18 million people do not currently have access to drinking water.

But that's not all since this deterioration poses a greater risk to the health of populations.

And in the case of Temen, we went from a normal situation to another where the whole population is exposed to cholera.

The most serious epidemic began at the end of 2016: 2.5 million Yemenis caught it and 4,000 died from it.

Have you visited any of these areas and what can you testify to the different concrete realities of access to water? 

In Africa, I notably worked in Nigeria in 2017. The community was beginning to realize that there was a major humanitarian crisis [caused among other things by the actions carried out by the Boko Haram group, in the north of the country].

In the city of Maiduguri in particular, there were almost a million people.

These people were totally helpless.

I visited these camps, I saw people who were dying of hunger and thirst.

The ICRC was one of the first on the spot but we did not manage to face this immeasurable stain and many people died.

We remain in a tense situation where many people are 100% dependent on humanitarian aid, whereas in crises of this kind, we would expect people to regain their autonomy.

I would also like to mention the rather specific case of Goma, in the DRC.

Like Maïduguri, it's a city that has been experiencing a large influx of displaced people for a long time: for Goma, it started at the time of the genocide in Rwanda and it doesn't stop.

So we end up with cities that are growing very quickly without adequate infrastructure.

We are reaching a critical stage since, according to our estimates, we could have between 300,000 and 500,000 people without access to water through a centralized system as we should have in a city like Goma.

Again, this will represent an extreme risk in terms of epidemics, such as cholera.

Has the duration of conflicts lengthened?

Yes, they have no end.

If you look at the 15 largest ICRC operations - Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, etc.

-, we have been present in these countries for more than forty years.

Unfortunately, the funding needed to cover the needs of these crises is stagnating or even declining.

We have less money, so it is necessary, in crises of such duration, to change the mode of operation and no longer be satisfied with the traditional humanitarian emergency.

It's just a bandage on a huge wound and you have to be able to heal it.

We must bring lasting solutions to the people who suffer from these conflicts. 

For example ?

To return to Goma, a great epidemic risk is foreseen.

We must therefore bring a preventive response.

We must try to build infrastructures to limit it.

We know that investing in prevention costs less than responding to a crisis and, in addition, lives are saved.

But that means that you have to even bigger, more systemic: it's not just the water purification infrastructure, you have to set up operators, authorities capable of managing these systems over time.

A much bigger challenge than what we usually do.

Who should or can take on this responsibility: States, organizations like the ICRC, development agencies...?

It is a joint effort because none of these components has the capacity to do it alone.

So we have to aim for partnerships, which are the answer to today's crises.

With the local actors because in the end, it is they who will ensure sustainability, but also with the development agencies which have know-how on a certain number of these measures that must be taken that the humanitarian workers have not not.

The other great danger for access to drinking or fresh water is climate change.

But it happens that war and climate are linked.

According to your figures, of the 25 states deemed the most vulnerable and the least ready to adapt to climate change, 14 are mired in conflict.

Firstly, has water ever been, in recent history, a casus belli, a direct reason for triggering a conflict?

Yes, water could have been the trigger for a conflict, but it is rarely the only one.

It is more often a combination of factors.

And water is also a source of peace when communities are included in these solutions and when essential services, including water supply, are strengthened.

Let's take the case of the Sahel where access to water is a huge constraint, particularly because of climate change, for the populations, whether nomadic or sedentary.

They depend on water resources for their domestic needs or for their means of survival, livestock or agriculture.

We see a decrease in these resources, a growing population and we end up with conflicts of use around the same wells, the same water points.

This creates tensions that sometimes degenerate into inter-community conflicts that have wreaked havoc in recent years.

We know the action of the ICRC in countries at war.

Less the role it plays in these areas where the problems seem more diffuse, more latent.

What are your actions in West Africa?

We intervene in practically all the countries of the Sahel today, mainly in support of the populations affected by the lack of access to water: pastoral communities, farmers and who feel the combined effects of global warming and conflicts.

In Burkina Faso, more than 1.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict.

The ICRC tries to work in the north which is the most affected by these displacements.

For example, it is trying to rehabilitate boreholes so that people do not feel forced to move from their place of residence;

in Niger, there is the Diffa area which has been greatly affected by the conflict around Lake Chad.

Here again, the ICRC has been working since 2017 with the Nigerien authorities,

development actors such as Luxembourg cooperation to develop infrastructure.

We are continuing work on the infrastructure because it requires a long-term effort to ensure that these systems work.

If it has the merit of existing, this World Water Forum, organized by companies, is much criticized for its lack of political support for effective measures to be taken.

Above all, we are waiting for the United Nations to take over responsibility for this subject.

What do you think of it, as a humanitarian organization?

It is true that the World Water Forum is perhaps not the most decisive at the political level.

But it is an important forum, especially this year since it is taking place in Dakar, in the Sahel.

It is also a place where we can make pleas, pass on messages. 

And what is that of the ICRC? 

There is three.

The first is to respect international humanitarian law in order to protect water supply systems and their personnel.

Ukraine is a good example.

Our teams do not have all the latitude to operate.

The second is to build effective partnerships with all possible players.

The third is to strengthen action against climate change in conflict zones.  

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