- Chad has the third-lowest level of access to safe water and the lowest level of access to adequate sanitation in all of Africa. Water infrastructure is largely undeveloped and surface water resources are limited. 

- Less than one in two children has access to safe drinking water, while only one in ten has access to improved sanitation and one in 17 children wash their hands with soap and water. Access to basic drinking water services is at 43% and to sanitation is at 10%

-Conflict torn areas forego water, especially clean water. In the refugee camps at Adré, in eastern Chad, some 200,000 people are receiving just five to six litres of water daily, well below the recommended emergency standard of 20 litres per day.

-The open defecation rate in Chad is 68 per cent, at the national level. With the lack of access to adequate water and sanitation having strong impacts on human health: approximately one out of every five children die before reaching the age of five primarily due to water-related diseases. 

-Some women walk for three or four kilometres before waiting for up to three hours in a queue to fetch drinking water for their families.

-Over 10 million people across the Lake Chad Basin are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

-Since 2014, CERF has provided nearly $156 million for life-saving humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict and deepening food crisis. 

-To increase access to clean water in Chad, Africare has constructed 113 wells since 2008 throughout Batha and Ouaddai, two of the most vulnerable, food insecure regions. Built in mostly high population density areas, the wells now benefit almost 35,000 people throughout the targeted regions.

-United Nations legislative initiatives: The national sanitation policy and strategy adopted in 2017, The National Water and Sanitation Investment Plan 2016-2030 and The roadmap for an open defecation-free Chad by 2030.

-A UNICEF project sponsored by CERF has brought hope for some of the youth touched by violence while tackling protection and economic empowerment in an innovative way. 100 young people are now learning how to build bio-sand filters, fix water points, make soap and build latrines to improve sanitation in the Lake Chad region. The project aims to respond to the immediate needs of the population in terms of access to clean water and promotion of good hygiene practices. (Image Below)