Since the escalation of Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Ukraine has experienced widespread destruction of critical infrastructure. Water and energy systems have been repeatedly targeted, resulting in severe service disruptions and progressive degradation due to ongoing hostilities and limited maintenance capacity. 

Humanitarian needs are acute along the frontline areas, particularly in Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Populations remaining or returning to these areas face reduced access to essential services, including safe water supply and sanitation.

Water infrastructure has been extensively damaged by shelling and power outages. In many communities, centralized systems are no longer fully functional, while groundwater sources are increasingly unreliable. Combined with limited local capacity, this constrains service restoration.

In this context, flexible interventions and resilient, energyefficient WASH solutions are essential to ensure service delivery to the beneficiaries under unstable conditions.

• Primary beneficiaries: Civilian populations in conflict-affected and frontline areas, prioritizing vulnerable groups relying on public water supply systems.
• Institutional beneficiaries: Local water service providers (vodokanals), communal enterprises, and municipalities responsible for water supply and sanitation services.
• Indirect beneficiaries: Public institutions (e.g. schools, health facilities) benefiting from improved water service reliability.

• Outcome 1 (resilience and sustainability): Conflict-affected populations regain and sustain access to safe, reliable drinking water through decentralized, energy-resilient systems and strengthened local capacity.
• Outcome 2 (emergency water): Emergency water supply capacity is strengthened to enable rapid response to acute disruptions in frontline and hard-to-access areas.
• Outcome 3 (technical support): Water service providers strengthen their capacity to operate, maintain, and manage water systems under unstable conditions, ensuring the functionality of RO systems.

Erwartete Resultate:  

• Decentralized water supply systems installed and operational, including RO units, boreholes, and water towers, with integrated energy-resilient solutions (solar and backup power) to ensure continuity of service.
• Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of existing water systems, including servicing of priority RO units, provision of consumables, leak detection, and targeted technical support to communal enterprises.
• Emergency water supply ensured through deployment of mobile water treatment units in areas affected by acute disruptions or limited access (last miles water delivery) 
• Local technical capacity strengthened through training of technicians and operators in system operation, maintenance, and energy systems.
• Water quality monitoring ensured, supporting compliance with national drinking water standards.

Resultate von früheren Phasen:  

Previous Camino-supported interventions in frontline and conflict-affected areas demonstrated that decentralized and operationally flexible WASH approaches can effectively complement larger-scale infrastructure support implemented through SDC Direct Action interventions (CP No. 7F-11003.03).

Experience from previous Camino activities confirmed that energy insecurity remains a major driver of water service disruptions in conflict-affected areas. Decentralized and energy-resilient systems, combined with preventive maintenance, technical support, and strengthened local operational capacity, significantly improve continuity and sustainability of water services under unstable conditions.

The previous phase also demonstrated the added value of combining emergency response capacities with flexible and locally anchored WASH interventions, in complementarity with broader SDC WASH Direct Action support to larger public infrastructure systems.

The project will be closely coordinated with:

• Ukrainian authorities at national and local levels
• The WASH Cluster partners 

It will also report to and complement ongoing SDC Direct Action WASH interventions, contributing to:

• Decentralized and last-mile service delivery
• Strengthening of local service capacity
• Testing and scaling of resilient technical solutions