Safe Water for Refugees
Refugees often suffer deep trauma when they are forced to flee their homes due to violence, persecution, political instability, food insecurity, or natural disasters.
Water Mission is honored to serve refugees. Helping them to find hope even as they grieve and heal. Water Mission is providing safe water to more than 680,000 refugees and displaced people, in 5 refugee camps. Within refugee settings, sound engineering standards and speed are crucial. Ensuring projects are implemented right the first time is a lifesaving imperative. Because of our commitment to excellence, UNHCR and UNICEF continue to seek long-term partnerships with Water Mission to develop and install safe water solutions.
Water Mission stands out as the NGO with enough in-house expertise to independently design operate and maintain solar water schemes and are also the only ones chlorinating water in all of their solar schemes.
Rhino Camp, Uganda
Northern Uganda is home to more than 1.8 million refugees. In this water-scarce region, many refugee settlements struggle to provide families with enough water.
Water Mission first got water flowing in one zone of Uganda’s Rhino Camp refugee settlement. We were then asked to oversee all the water systems in the settlement. However, we found design and construction issues with many of the systems we had inherited. In 2024, we rehabilitated one of the more fragile systems known as Omugo 5. Today, refugees in the area have access to safe, clean water 24 hours a day.
Nyarugusu, Tanzania
Our work in Nyarugusu began in 2015 when an influx of refugees from Burundi put a strain on the settlement’s fragile infrastructure. Water Mission installed safe water solutions to meet the immediate need and then expanded to serve the entire camp. This involved installing design upgrades, constructing storage tanks, building underground piping, and training UN staff and refugees on day-to-day operations. We continue to monitor the systems and act as an ongoing resource.
Turkana, Kenya
In 2024, Water Mission began serving refugees in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee settlements in Turkana, Kenya. Broken water systems could not keep up with the growing population’s water needs. Women and girls walked for hours to find a running tap or collected dirty water from the river.
Our engineers began a comprehensive assessment of the water systems currently in place, which revealed various design and construction issues. The team continues to make progress on two major safe water projects in these settlements with the goal of providing safe, clean water for refugees.
Safe Water is Transforming Lives in Refugee Camps
Our customized, cutting-edge solutions help men, women, and children in refugee camps experience healthier and more dignified living conditions.
