Challenges of sustaining urban water supply for rapidly growing post war city: case study of Hargeisa City

Over 65% of the estimated one million people in Somaliland capital city of Hargeisa are currently relying on water trucking from unprotected and poorly maintained water sources around Hargeisa for daily water use and the poorest families spend almost 5 times more than others who have access to main water due to the high price of the trucked water. Hence, the Hargeisa urban water supply upgrading project is currently underway to replace the tumbledown and inadequate water infrastructure that was constructed 1970s to supply what was a city of 180,000 inhabitants. The project is principally funded by the European Union with supplementary fund from the Somaliland Development Fund and World Bank/WSP in partnership with the Hargeisa Water Agency and UN- Habitat. Therefore, this paper is examining the challenges that the poor resourced Hargeisa Water Agency (HWA) will face for managing the improved Hargeisa water supply system beyond the current large-scale water supply upgrading project.