Somaliland Committee Reviews Hargeisa Water Supplies Status

On 4 July 2015, Somaliland Sun reported that members of a Somaliland parliamentary standing committee had been briefed in Hargeisa on the status of the city's water supplies. The briefing was closed-door, and the deputy chair of the committee, MP Ahmed Duale Bulale, spoke to the media afterwards, according to the report.

At the briefing, the manager of the Hargeisa Water Agency, Ibrahim Siyad Younis, said the Hargeisa Urban Water Supply Upgrading Project (HUWSUP) was on-going as planned. He described the meeting as a regular constitutional stipulation that allowed him to inform legislators on prevailing supplies status, on-going development activities, future plans and constraints, Somaliland Sun reported. He also said Hargeisa was experiencing rural-to-urban migration causing occasional water shortages.

Somaliland Sun reported that HUWSUP is funded by the Somaliland Development Fund (SDF) and the European Union, and is being undertaken by the Hargeisa Water Agency with technical support from UN-HABITAT. The report did not give funder contribution amounts, disbursement figures or financing agreements. It described the project only as "multi-million dollar", which is not a stated value.

Works on the project kicked off on 6 June upon the arrival of firms from Ethiopia and France, according to the report. Somaliland Sun named the civil works contractors as Awash Weldey (Ethiopia) and Masson Contracting Companies (France). The extract also refers to "Awash Weldey & Feljas", and the identity of "Feljas" is unverified. The year of the 6 June start is not stated in the extract; only the publication date suggests 2015. No contract award notice or contract document is cited for the named contractors.

MP Bulale said the committee was satisfied by achievements and would provide any necessary support. The report does not establish what the committee's satisfaction was based on beyond the briefing, and it should not be read as an independent assessment of quality or completion. Legislators were reported as satisfied with on-going works by the firms contracted to upgrade Hargeisa water supply.

The report does not state the current status of HUWSUP after 4 July 2015. It gives no completion date, project cost or measured outcome, and it does not establish whether the project has alleviated water shortages; only an expectation that the works would fill the gap in water supply is described. No statements from the contractors, SDF, EU or UN-HABITAT are included.