Water and Environmental Health for Palestine Refugees in the West Bank



Contract partner: UNRWA - United Nations Relief and Works Agency Country: Palästinensische Gebiete Funding amount: € 750.000,00 Project start: 01.12.2009 End: 15.05.2011

Short Description:

Overall goal


The health status of Palestine refugees living in refugee camps in the West Bank is significantly challenged by poor environmental conditions. Infrastructure for water and sanitation must cope with natural population growth, increasing afflux of population, frequent military operations and unequal access to natural resources.

In the West Bank, the current water supply of 65.3 l/c/d is that of a low income country and significantly less than the international WHO recommendation of 150 l/c/d.

The status of water and sanitation infrastructure in West Bank camps is constantly deteriorating, posing serious threats to the health status of Palestine refugees (transmission of diseases such as Hepatitis A, skin and eye infections, pneumonia, diarrhea) and to the environment.

As part of its 2009 and 2010 Emergency Appeals, UNWRA directly responds to this situation and set up an Environmental Health Programme to improve the environmental health conditions of refugee camps in the West Bank and surrounding areas and minimize the risks of public health threats through (i) rehabilitation of public infrastructure in 16 camps (ii) removal of solid waste from eight refugee camps and (iii) raising awareness on water-related issues.

The project funded by the Austrian contribution covers two of these three program components, namely (1) the cost of rehabilitating the infrastructure of the 16 refugee camps and monitoring the quality of water and (2) the cost of water awareness campaigns and water quality tests. Through theses measures, the project benefits an estimated 175,691 refugees residing in the targeted camps.

Special attention is paid to traditional gender roles associated with water management in order to ease the burden imposed on women and to advocate for a more equal distribution of roles amongst women and men in the conflict-prone area. Thereby, the project is in line with Austria's commitment to support UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

project number 2118-00/2009
source of funding OEZA
sector Humanitäre Hilfe: Sofortmaßnahmen
tied
modality
marker
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
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