“For years, floods have washed away entire sections of our village and put our lives at risk. Each rainy season, the community is hit by torrential storms – with catastrophic impacts to our homes, agriculture, livestock, school infrastructure, and our ability to access healthcare in times of need. People have drowned and sheep have been swept away. If the flooding isn’t contained, it will only rise and grow stronger.” – Ahmed Al-Sanafi

Ahmed’s Story

A 55-year-old father of nine children, Ahmed  Al-Sanafi works as a finance teacher in the Education Department at the Tour Al-Bahah District. From his modest home in Al-Samtiah village, he fears for his family’s safety and confronts many challenges each day because of the scarcity of clean water and lack of healthcare resources.

During the rainy season, torrential downpours, flash flooding, and stagnant water swell up to 3-meters above ground level. With each passing season, the community’s only school, many houses, and much of the region’s farmland are at risk of being swept away or destroyed. Tragically, a number of community members have drowned because they were unable to escape the flash flooding in time.

Understandably, those who could afford to do so left the village to seek shelter in safer areas – leaving a tremendous impact on the local economy, sugar cane farming, and sense of public safety.

That is why, outside of work, Ahmed chose to become a member of the land protection committee, which was founded with the support of the Public Works Project  (PWP) through a grant from KSRelief  – in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This initiative helps the community to protect its infrastructure and take shelter during the rainy season through the construction of PVC-coated and galvanized walls that last for up to 60 years. 

In Ahmed’s words: “We used to fundraise through community initiatives, where we would collect money from the locals to construct barrier walls around the areas that were most likely to be swept away. It was only a temporary fix, though. The gabion wall project is very good for us and we hope to have the opportunity to complete the work. It means a lot in this time of social instability and the global pandemic that residents can feel a bit optimistic about the future, that we are being supported by the international community.”

After submitting the engineering plan and architectural drafts for this project, local contractors began work immediately and benefitted not only from knowing they were protecting their community but also short-term employment. The same community members who had left for safer regions are coming back to restore their land and contribute once more to the local community and economy.

Seeking a Normal Life

Ali Moqbel Al-Samati was inspired to step away from retirement to support his community – and serve as a role model to his 10 children – by supervising the soil care project in Al-Hofash village, where Ahmed also resides. Ali Muqbil commends the project for “restoring comfort and a sense of community among the people, who have begun to live normal lives again.” 

Despite the fact that the project hasn’t met all the community’s needs due to insufficient funding, the rehabilitation to date and community well-being are promising signs for the future. The reality is that, without the gabion walls, Ali Muqbel fears “half the village would have gone with the torrent.”

Still, there is much work that remains to be done to protect residents, provide them with sustainable incomes, and restore their faith that they will remain safe. The country’s ongoing civil war has left an estimated 24 million people (or more than 80 per cent of the population) in need of humanitarian and development assistance that is only compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to the KSA grant, by the end of May 2020, over 231,100 community members have benefitted from rehabilitated key infrastructure identified as priorities by the communities themselves, like those living in Al-Hofash. In turn, this has fostered access to roads, safe dwellings, and clean drinking water – contributing to community well-being and preventing the spread of cholera and COVID-19