Breaking the Cycle: Making Somaliland’s Rural Water Systems Climate Resilient

Image: Supplied by the authors

This policy brief examines Somaliland’s water crisis, which reflects a policy gap between the scale of climate and demographic pressures and the capacity of current institutions to plan, finance and maintain rural water services. It will not be solved by emergency water delivery alone. The Government should treat rural water access as a climate adaptation and local governance priority, with groundwater protection, service standards and accountable financing implemented together. The paper presents three key messages, and concludes with policy recommendations and implementation priorities.