Each year on the 22nd of March, millions of people around the globe commemorate the world water day. The event is generally well covered by media stations with in depth reports and special features. Yet, despite these yearly global reflections, things do not really seem to improve: As mentioned in an Austrian newspaper, each day approximately 4- to 5000 children die on diarrhoea, which is largely caused by lack of clean water and toilettes. Over a billion people currently lack access to clean drinking water, harvests are threatened by occurring droughts, often followed by floods, destroying whatever is left from the harvest, and the economy of many states suffers due to the lack of available water, too. As if this current situation would not be bad enough, prognosis for the future look even gloomier: according to an international research institute, over 60% of the world’s population will have problems accessing clean and sufficient water by 2025.Somaliland has over the past years felt the impact of water shortages, too. Although not as severely hit as South Somalia, many parts of the country have suffered under last year’s drought. A year earlier, floods swept away one of the two only bridges that connect one half of Hargeisa to the other half of the city.
The organisation I am working for is dealing a lot with water supply, especially for rural areas. Hundreds of wells and water tanks have been constructed over the past years, and thousands of people have been trained on water, hygiene and sanitation practices. As part of our advocacy for increased access to clean water, we also support the Somaliland Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources each year in organizing activities on the International Water Day.
This year was no exception. Besides distributing hundreds of T-shirts and caps with well meant messages on them, we sponsored a drama performance. At eight o clock in the morning, the fun was supposed to take off inside the premises of the Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources. As part of the ceremony, the newly erected building for the Water department of the Ministry was inaugurated; reason enough for the President of Somaliland to join the event in persona.
Although envisaged to start at eight (a little bit overambitious, if you are interested to hear my opinion), the event did not start before nine, after the arrival of the president. All in all, the speeches that followed brought little new. We all know that water is and will be a problem in the future, but talking alone will not solve the problem. Therefore, I found the link to oil – made several times during key speeches – much more interesting. I understand that the Ministry of Water AND Mineral resources hosted the event – however, I also thought that we are commemorating the international Water day, and not the international Oil day. At one point, I had to ask my self: Is water the reason for our get together, or oil? Among others, it was mentioned during speeches, that an energy company has financed the rehabilitation of the “petroleum department” in the ministry (including rehabilitation of a toilet), sponsored five cars and paid a small lumpsum to the Ministry in exchange of a signature. Two white men in black, apparently not from the INGOs or UN agencies (dress too formal, sunglasses too dark) were sitting closer to the President and Minister as the representatives from the UN and INGO’s. It turned out later that they are representatives from the oil company mentioned below. The closeness came at no surprise, considering that oil companies usually put less uncomfortable conditions on governments than bi- and multilateral donors.
Discussions around Oil are nothing new to Somalia/Somaliland. Siad Barre, former dictator of Somalia, sold off nearly two thirds of the country to Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips. This was back in 1990; the country elapsed in a civil war soon after, and drilling never started.
While the south is still struggling with pacifying the different clans, Somaliland, having declared independence in 1991, has already reached a degree of stability. Time to follow up on potential oil reservoirs, might one or the other company think! In its ambitions to make use of natural resources, Somaliland has awarded a production sharing contract to a Rova Ophir Energy company. Since I hardly know anything about this company, I will stop the writing at this point – maybe, at a later stage, their might be some more in depth writings about Somaliland and its potentials to get a share in the oil business. For now I just wanted to share with you my surprise over some of the speeches during yesterdays international Water Day!
The international water day event itself came to an abrupt end, when the president decided to leave (out of a sudden, in between the drama performance). As a result of his sudden departure, everybody else departed, too.
So, that is how the official commemoration of the international water day in Somaliland looked like. A colleague of mine commented on our way back to the office, with a sober voice “look, we got a free bottle of water – that’s at least something”.
My last words of this blog entry go to the theme of this years’ water day, which is “coping with water scarcity”. Reflecting on it, I have to admit, that this is a rather disillusioning theme. Coping mechanisms usually start once a certain fact is accepted. Is there nothing more that we can do regarding water scarcity than coping with it?
