Thursday July 13, 2023
Unemployed since the floods, Mohamud stays home in Beletweyne with his childen/Abdirisak Ahmed/Ergo
Employment and earnings for low-income residents of Beletweyne, in Somalia’s Hiran region, have been suspended for weeks due to the closure of roads and damage to property and basic amenities caused by the recent river flooding.
Niqow Shire Adan, 45, a mother of eight, said that they have been suffering from a food shortage since early May when she effectively lost her job.
Niqow normally washes clothes in the city residential neighbourhoods earning $6-10 a day. Her husband is disabled and cannot work. The family is now relying on their neighbours for food.
When the floods hit, their one-room house in Hawo-Tako neighbourhood in Beledweyne was destroyed and they had to move out to live in a flimsy shack in Nasteho IDP camp on the outskirts of the city.
“If we find food at night, we don’t get it during the day. If we find food in the morning, there’s no lunch or dinner. There are no jobs in the city while roads remain closed due to flood water and none around the camp,” she complained.
The river Shabelle is about six kilometre away from the camp, and the displaced women like Niqow have to walk to carry water on their backs for their domestic consumption.
“My clothes were even washed away by the floods, also all our bedding. All we have left is a carpet and a mattress that weren’t washed away,” she noted, adding that they have no funds at all to be able to repair their home back in Hawo-tako.
Another city resident, Mohamud Mire Olyaan, 48, migrated to El-jalle, five kilometres from the city when the floods hit. There, he and his family had to shelter in small shack made of cardboard and pieces of cloth.
When the flood water subsided, they decided to return home on 26 May, preferring at least to be back on their own property. However, their house in Koshin neighbourhood has been badly damaged and the toilet has been destroyed. He has no money to embark on repairs.
Since coming home, he has only had eight days of work and earned just $25 pruning and cutting trees in people’s compounds. With such little income they have been eating one meal a day, taking food on credit, or asking people for help with food.
He and his wife and nine children are unable to access clean water. The well they used before was damaged in the floods. Some locals are buying a barrel of water at $3 but he cannot afford this.
“There isn’t even a cup of water to drink at my house now, there is nothing! My wife took a jerry can and went out to try asking for water from the neighbours, but she came back without any water, there is no water at all in the neighborhood,” he said.
Mohamud said that before the floods, he was working on a vegetable farm near Beledweyne earning $350 a month.
Many families displaced by the floods returned to their homes in June, although business activity has not yet returned to normal. Parts of the city including the roads remain under water and movement is severely hampered.