In a state of uncertainty? Mogadishu water supply

Following twenty years of conflict, the context of stabilization and early recovery in Mogadishu has supported a strategic water supply assessment. Traditionally supplied by shallow wells, at the outbreak of civil war the program of reticulated supply development collapsed, and the town has since reverted to an un-centralized network of wells, small scale reticulated distribution systems and vendors, with limited water treatment options. Access to sufficient safe affordable water is biased disproportionately against the poorest. The trend of well expansion driven by diaspora/national investment and humanitarian/aid programs continues. Although a planning framework is coming into place to address rehabilitation of a centrally regulated system required in the future, taking account of uncertainty, purposive research has produced an inference-based analysis. A fresh problem statement underpinning national efforts to improve prospects for sustainable water supply development for Mogadishu has been framed.