1. PROGRAM OVERVIEW & CONTEXT

The Issue: The Challenge We Face

Access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene remains one of the most urgent life-saving needs for millions of people across Yemen. Prolonged conflict, economic collapse, and climate-related shocks have severely weakened WASH systems, leaving vulnerable communities—particularly displaced populations, women, and children—at heightened risk.

Across affected areas, households face daily challenges in accessing sufficient and safe water for drinking and basic hygiene. Children, especially girls, are disproportionately impacted, often spending long hours collecting water from unsafe and distant sources, exposing them to protection risks and disrupting access to education. These conditions reinforce negative coping mechanisms and perpetuate cycles of vulnerability.

Yemen’s WASH infrastructure is critically damaged, under-maintained, and unable to meet growing humanitarian needs. Recurrent flooding, drought, and water scarcity continue to disrupt water supply systems and contaminate existing sources. An estimated 17 million people lack adequate access to safe water, while over 40 per cent of internally displaced persons (IDP) sites lack basic sanitation facilities, resulting in widespread open defecation and increased risks of waterborne diseases and protection concerns, particularly for women and girls.

Insufficient access to safe WASH services is a key driver of disease outbreaks and contributes directly to malnutrition, especially among children in conflict-affected, flood-prone, and hard-to-reach areas. Climate change further compounds these challenges, with nearly half of the population exposed to extreme climate hazards, including drought and heat stress, intensifying water scarcity and undermining community resilience.

Emergency WASH interventions remain critical to saving lives, preventing disease, and restoring dignity, while strengthening community-based systems to withstand ongoing shocks and future climate impacts.

Our Approach: Goals & Objectives

Our Goal: To ensure that the most vulnerable populations in Yemen have timely, equitable, and life-saving access to emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in order to reduce excess morbidity and mortality, prevent disease outbreaks, and preserve human dignity in crisis-affected settings.

Main Objective: To improve equitable and safe access to emergency water supply, basic sanitation, and hygiene services for populations affected by conflict, displacement, and climate-related shocks, with particular focus on high-risk, underserved, and hard-to-reach areas, in line with HRP 2025 WASH Cluster priorities.

Our Objectives:

• Objective 1: TA3 (Water Supply): Ensure the provision of safe, sufficient, and reliable emergency water supply to internally displaced persons (IDPs), vulnerable host communities, and other crisis-affected populations through life-saving interventions.

• Objective 2: TA4 (Sanitation): Improve access to adequate, safe, and gender-sensitive sanitation facilities for IDPs, vulnerable groups, and affected communities to reduce open defecation, mitigate protection risks, and prevent the spread of water-borne diseases.

• Objective 3: TA5 (Hygiene): Ensure access to appropriate hygiene items and promote safe hygiene practices through the distribution of hygiene kits, hygiene promotion activities, and community engagement, contributing to the prevention of disease outbreaks and improved public health outcomes.

• Objective 4: TA6 (Enablers, AAP & Resilience): Strengthen community-led approaches and national and local institutions to enhance the sustainability and safe use of WASH services, reinforce resilience to shocks, and ensure Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) through inclusive participation, feedback mechanisms, and capacity strengthening.

Who We Help: Target Beneficiaries

In line with HRP 2025 prioritization criteria, Pure Hands’ emergency WASH interventions target the most vulnerable and at-risk populations across Yemen, including:

• Internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps and informal settlements.

• Crisis-affected host communities and rural populations with limited or no access to safe water infrastructure.

• Women and girls disproportionately affected by water collection burdens and heightened protection risks.

• Children exposed to increased health and nutrition risks due to inadequate WASH conditions.

• Communities in conflict-affected, climate-vulnerable, and hard-to-reach areas.

2. PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION & ACHIEVEMENTS

What We Do: Our Key Activities

Emergency Water Supply

• Provision of safe water through emergency water trucking.

• Installation and rehabilitation of communal water tanks, tap stands, and temporary water points.

Emergency Sanitation

• Rehabilitation of household and communal latrines.

• Desludging and safe waste management services in high-risk locations.

Hygiene & Public Health

• Distribution of basic and consumable hygiene kits.

• Hygiene promotion and community engagement activities targeting high-risk behaviors.

• Distribution of household IPC and disinfection kits in response to disease outbreaks (including COVID-19 where relevant).

Capacity Strengthening & Community Engagement

• Capacity building for the operation and maintenance of water and sanitation systems.

• Training of community volunteers in hygiene promotion and community-led WASH approaches.

• Strengthening the capacity of local WASH actors in humanitarian WASH programming.

Coordination, Assessments & Information Management

• Conducting multi-sectoral and WASH-specific needs assessments to inform evidence-based decision-making.

• Supporting coordination mechanisms at national and sub-national levels in line with WASH Cluster structures.

• Contributing to sectoral information management systems, monitoring, and reporting.

By the Numbers: Our Impact (2013-2025)

Gender Breakdown

• Men: 113,182

• Women: 122,613

• Boys: 115,539

• Girls: 120,254

Sector-Specific Achievements

• Water Points Constructed/Rehabilitated: 45 projects.

• Communities with Improved WASH Access: Multiple governorates.

• Hygiene Promotion Sessions Conducted: Thousands of participants.