Barriers to Safe Water Access in Baidoa’s Rapidly Expanding IDP Settlements: A Market-Systems Analysis of Affordability, Availability, and Reliability

Somalia has experienced prolonged humanitarian crises, resulting in millions of displaced persons, living in makeshift camps, and receiving limited basic services, with Baidoa as the second-largest host of these IDPs. There is limited understanding of the local water market system challenges from existing literature. This study used a mix-methods multisite comparative analysis, drawn from 147 households from 9 IDP settlements categorized to 6 typologies, complemented by four focus group discussion, and five key informant interviews. The study show that affordability is the most dominant barrier with households spending greater than 10% of their monthly income and consuming around 11.7 liters per person per day at a cost of 4,280 SOS per 20-liter jerrycan. Challenges varied across different settlement with arrival corridors, protracted, and Market adjacent settlements having different trade-offs of affordability, availability, and reliability. Weak government oversight, improper management of the water sources, poor pipeline infrastructure, and security challenges have been identified as underlying challenges to the barriers, showing the water market failed to deliver affordable, and reliable water to IDPs in Baidoa. Finally, the study contributes to better understanding of water access for IDPs in fragile contexts, showing systematic constraints that limit equitable and sustainable access to water.