The refugee crisis has been dragging on for years now amidst a general apathy from the international community. As situations become more dire, many refugees are losing faith in the ability of the world to take them in. Some are choosing to return to war in their home countries rather than existing in dangerous and unsanitary refugee camps. HPR writers weigh in on the underreported issues facing refugees the world over.
If you can just manage to escape war-torn Syria and make it to a refugee camp, you’ll be safe, right? Wrong.
Refugee camps are grim places to live, and while the suffering of refugees is well-documented, one of the biggest dangers has nothing to do with guns and violence, but with the lack of clean drinking water. Refugees placed in camps often face water scarcity and inadequate ability to purify the little that is available, leading to negative health consequences and further strain on already overworked infrastructure.
Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, the Syrian people have been subjugated to extreme human rights violations, including indiscriminate bombing and chemical attacks on civilian areas, often perpetrated by their own government. The numbers of people devastated by the violent conflict are shocking: over 450,000 civilians have been killed, 6.5 million people internally displaced, and 4.5 million forced to flee Syria and seek refuge abroad. Many refugees seek peace in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, while some even venture to Europe or the United States. The Syrian conflict has caused an unprecedented exodus of civilians, and poses huge challenges in safely and effectively sheltering such a large number of displaced people.
Over 600,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan, a country with extreme water scarcity. Even without refugees, the per capita water availability in Jordan is among the lowest in the world. This situation is not unique to Jordan. Much of the Middle East is climatically dry and susceptible to drought. The World Health Organization recommends 20 liters of water per person per day for drinking, sanitation, cooking, hygiene, and other daily activities. Providing this amount of water in dry and overcrowded refugee camps without piped infrastructure is often infeasible. When water is scarce, everyday activities become difficult, and infection and disease spread easily.
As early as 2013, experts noted that Jordan’s water scarcity was posing problems. Christian Snoad, an Oxfam coordinator, observed that “the Syrian refugee emergency is highlighting one of Jordan’s most pressing problems—water.” Three years later, the tide of Syrian refugees is only growing, and Jordan is only getting drier. As a result, life is getting harder for refugees, like the mother of three who lamented to the AP that her family lacked necessities, like bread and water. In desperation, she turned to buying dirty water stored in gasoline containers—and still carrying its taste.
Another challenge facing refugee camps is ensuring that the available water is clean and safe to drink. Though chlorine tablets and other emergency measures can be employed to purify water at the point of use, these techniques may fail or be inadequately enforced. Drinking unclean water can spread diseases like diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid. The management of these diseases, while difficult under the best of circumstances, is often impossible in the resource-poor, crowded conditions of a refugee camp. This situation leaves many refugees to contend with dirty drinking water on top of their other challenges. One mother of seven, living with her family in a Lebanese camp, reported that they went without clean water for weeks at a time. Nearby streams were polluted, and her children were developing skin infections as a result.
Unfortunately, improving access to clean water at an infrastructural level is no easy task. It requires a government committed to developing systems and maintaining them, as well as a tax base sufficient to fund this undertaking. In the meantime, refugees are often dependent on the pocketbooks of NGOs, and what resources the governments housing them can muster. Ultimately, access to safe water is integral to the survival of refugees; however, it remains one of the biggest hurdles in the race to protect the Syrian people.
