Aid agencies in Somalia are asking for $11 million to give the hundred of displaced people, due to fighting in the capital, emergency water and sanitation, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Over 200,000 people have left Mogadishu since early May when violence erupted due to tensions between the Government and the opposition Al-Shabab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups.

OCHA reported that more than 600,000 displaced people, settled in the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu, desperately needed water, sanitation and hygiene services.

Currently, Aid agencies are only able to supply two to eight liters of water per person per day in that area, while between 7.5 and 15 liters—less than one flush of an average toilet—is considered the bare minimum required for survival.

There is also only one latrine for ever 212 displaced people in the Afgooye corridor.

A primary concern is that the lack of water may have adverse effects on the efforts to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in overcrowded situations.

Source: UN News Centre