Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to clean drinking water for (a) internally displaced persons in Syria and (b) refugees from Syria in neighbouring countries.

In the last financial year alone, our support meant that over 4.1 million people within Syria were provided with clean drinking water. In the Northwest, for example, DFID’s support is providing access to water and sanitation services for highly vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including one programme that is using trucks to deliver water services, reaching over 67,000 people in need across over 100 IDP sites in the area. Elsewhere, DFID has funded UNICEF to provide life-saving water to the approximately 40,000 people in Rukban IDP camp.

We are also committed to supporting neighbouring countries who are hosting Syrian refugees. For example, since the start of the crisis, the UK has provided funding to support sustainable access to clean water or sanitation facilities in Lebanon for over 1.1 million people in need from Syria and Lebanon. In Jordan, the UK is providing £14.1 million to UNICEF between December 2016 and November 2019 to provide refugees with access to clean drinking water, through installing water systems in refugee camps and delivering water to vulnerable households in host communities. DFID also provided £8 million to UNICEF in the last financial year to enhance access to water and sanitation infrastructure for the most vulnerable communities in Iraq, including to camps which host Syrian refugees.