Community taps wash away women’s water burdens in Rakhine’s Kyin Ni Pyin camp

In 2012 inter-communal and inter-religious conflict between majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities forced some 129,000 people from Muslim communities to flee their homes in Rakhine State, Myanmar. In some cases entire villages were relocated to congested camps for Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Su Li Pha Ran, located in Pauktaw Township, is one of them. 

Women and children fetch water at one of the tap stands in Kyin Ni Pyin IDP camp in Rakhine, Myanmar.
©UNICEF Myanmar/2017/Kris Cahyanto

Five years on, its more than 5,936 inhabitants are still sheltering in Kyin Ni Pyin camp. Isolated from other camps and villages in Rakhine, Kyin Ni Pyin is particularly hard to reach and far from markets. Health and education services are scarce and only provided by international aid agencies.

Every May, when the dry season descended, hardship for women in the camp peaked dramatically. With most ponds surrounding the camp drying up, the women were forced to walk for over 30 minutes to reach the nearest pond where water could still be found. Even at these watering holes, levels were low. So, when they filled their zinc gorra jugs, the water was often mixed with mud and sand. As they could only carry enough water for one person per trip, collecting enough water for their family meant several trips per day in the oppressive heat. 

“To save water, time and energy, many of the women and children stopped bathing,” said Rakhine’s UNICEF WASH Specialist, Basilius Kris Cahyanto. “Their skin became red and itchy, and without enough water, they were unable to use the soap they received as part of the hygiene kits we distributed on a monthly basis.”

But, in February 2017, UNICEF and the Danish Refugee Council constructed two water tap stands at the heart of the camp. These simple yet life-changing taps now provide clean water for the camp’s population. 

Four times a day a team of camp-based water supply workers pump water out from an enlarged, rehabilitated pond into chlorination tanks. They treat the water before pumping it down to the tap stands. Now, even though the pond depletes in May, the water supply team refills it by pumping in water from ponds that are further away. 

Women and children carry their gorra jugs filled with water back to their makeshift shelters in Kyin Ni pyin IDP camp, Rakhine, Myanmar.
©UNICEF Myanmar/2017/Myo Thame

Women from Su Li Pha Ran village are now able to fetch water easily from the tap stands only a few minutes-walk from their makeshift shelters. “They no longer have to sacrifice their personal hygiene and safety nor waste hours trudging through sunburnt fields to fetch water in the scorching heat,” explains Cahyanto. “They empty the water from their gorra jugs into large plastic buckets inside their shelters, slap the lids back on the buckets, and head back to the tap stand to collect more.” 

Two members from the water supply team monitor each tap stand to ensure that water isn’t wasted. They help women lift their brimming gorra jugs and turn off taps for young children after they have finished filling their buckets. In the early morning, the tap stands are bustling with activity as people fetch water before the mid-morning heat descends.

UNICEF and its government partner Department of Rural Development (DRD) is building three water ponds to harvest more water during the rainy season period and continue to improve water safety in the camp. Across Rakhine’s IDP camps, UNICEF aims to build more water collection, storage, and distribution systems and continue improving the access to clean water for the children and their families.