What if the millions that went into temporary water solutions for refugees could be converted into permanent water systems?
Think about infrastructure that will last long after humanitarian projects end and benefit the entire community.
That was the hot topic at the International Conference on Water, Peace and Security last month, where leaders, policymakers and development partners met in Nairobi.
Across East Africa, water scarcity, conflict and displacement are converging – testing the limits of humanitarian aid and national systems alike.
This deepening crisis is particularly evident in the refugee region of the Horn of Africa, where the number of displaced people far exceeds the number of people arriving in Europe.
Over 5 million refugees and 17 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) continue to rely on temporary humanitarian systems for safe drinking water and sanitation.
What were once stopgap solutions have become semi-permanent lifelines – expensive to maintain, vulnerable to climate shocks and disconnected from government systems.
But a new model shows that a different future is possible.
Amid drastic global aid cuts and the subsequent exit of some humanitarian partners, UNICEF and UNHCR, with support from the German government through KfW Development Bank, are leading the R-WASH initiative, a new approach that integrates refugee water systems into national, government-managed utilities.
And it’s cheaper – and smarter – to invest in permanent water systems than to maintain expensive, temporary systems.
In Gambella, Ethiopia, the R-WASH model has already increased the cost of water supply tenfold by switching from trucked water to a sustainable piped water supply managed by local utilities.
Modernizing water systems under the R-WASH model could reduce service costs by more than 70 percent, according to a new analysis from the refugee hosting areas of Kebribeyah, Aw Barre and Shedder in Ethiopia, Dollow in Somalia and Wad Sharifey in Sudan.
However, R-WASH goes beyond a cost-effective approach; It is a climate-smart innovation designed to withstand environmental shocks, strengthen the resilience of water systems and strengthen social cohesion between displaced and host communities who often compete for water.
By combining robust investments in long-lasting water systems with capacity building and governance support for local utilities and environmental protection measures, the initiative ensures that systems remain in place long after humanitarian projects end.
R-WASH enables local utilities and communities to take responsibility and secure valuable investments in resilient water and sanitation systems.
Over time, refugees should become paying customers of public water utilities and not just recipients of aid, in order to promote shared prosperity and normalize service delivery between refugees and host communities.
It is a model based on partnership.
UNICEF and UNHCR, in collaboration with the German government through KfW, Xylem, the African Development Bank, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and local governments, show what sustainable humanitarian development cooperation looks like in practice.
The next step is to take the approach at scale.
With the support of international financial institutions and other funds, we envision a comprehensive transition away from historically costly, lengthy humanitarian responses.
The R-WASH experience offers a practical way to de-risk such investments and anchor them in local systems that work for everyone.
Sustainable water systems are not just a moral imperative – they are a dividend for peace and stability.
By investing in inclusive, resilient infrastructure, governments and partners can help refugees and host communities alike thrive where they are and reduce the pressures that drive migration and conflict.
As government leaders, technology companies, researchers and donors gathered in Nairobi, the message from East Africa was clear: Peace begins where water flows sustainably.