Lack of clean water as thousands return to the south

Civilians returning to southern Sudan will put serious pressure on the region’s water resources, which can supply only 30 percent of southerners with clean water as it is, the UN warned on Thursday. "No amount of food and medicine will keep people well if their water supply and environment are contaminated," Ben Parker, communications officer for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN from Yambio, southern Sudan. After decades of civil war in the region, some 500,000 refugees and an estimated four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are expected to start returning home, now that a peace agreement has been signed. According to figures released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Sunday, approximately 1,500 IDPs have been returning to southern Sudan every week. As more and more Sudanese begin to move, health risks related to water and sanitation are becoming an increasing concern. Lack of clean water has led to "terrible social costs", according to a statement by Wendy Chamberlin, acting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday. These have included an increased risk of sexual assault for women forced to fetch water from unguarded locations, and higher rates of disease due to the consumption of dirty water. "Refugees often have to spend hours every day collecting water," Chamberlin noted. "School children skip classes to help, and families are more likely to use water from unsafe sources to save time." Much of southern Sudan consists of semi-arid land, and water-related problems occur throughout the year - flooding during the rains and water shortages in the dry season. "People have to get water, one way or another, and they often end up using unsafe water sources instead," the manager of the water and sanitation programme in southern Sudan for the international aid organisation World Vision, Stephen Maina, told IRIN on Wednesday. "The main problem has been the lack of regular maintenance of existing wells and pumps, as the spare parts were not available within the country and it was very hard to import them, because of the war," Maina explained. He believed that 21 years of war had led to inadequate technical training in water management, as well as the lack of a proper sense of ownership, because communities had become dependent on relief agencies for the repair and rehabilitation of their water sources. "The region is so vast and the population so scattered that it is very hard to cover everybody’s water needs," he said, adding that in larger towns with extensive IDP populations, the overuse of existing water sources often resulted in pump breakdown. History of dirty water In June 2004, a UNICEF report estimated that, at that time, 27 percent of southern Sudanese had access to an improved water source, and only 16 percent had access to sanitation facilities. About seven thousand clean water sources served an estimated eight million people, but only half of these were operational at any one time, the agency reported. Most people drew water from rivers, swamps, pools and ponds; the water from these sources could only be made safe to drink by filtration and boiling. As a result, scores of adults and children died each year from diarrhoea and water-related illnesses such as the deadly guinea-worm disease - a major cause of suffering, and to some extent, deaths in some areas of southern Sudan. The guinea worm is a parasite that enters the human system through unfiltered drinking water. It leaves its carriers weak and unable to carry out their daily activities. According to UNICEF’s report, more than 80 percent of worldwide cases occurred in southern Sudan. While a quarter of all children in southern Sudan died before reaching the age of five, the report revealed that approximately 22 percent of those deaths were attributed to diarrhoea caused by poor hygiene and unsafe drinking water. However, Parker noted that the emergency team sent to southern Sudan in late February included water and sanitation experts. Their task was to begin laying the groundwork for civilian return to a region where infrastructure and basic services were practically non-existent. Emergency action included providing clean-water pumps, building latrines, installing washing facilities, and distributing essential items such as buckets and jerry cans for carrying water and soap. Heavy-duty water-supply systems with tens of kilometres of piping were needed for larger camps and towns. The sustainability of the water sources, largely dependent on timely maintenance of facilities, was considered a priority by the team, as most water points in the area were used around the clock - far exceeding normal standards of operation. To increase communities’ self-reliance, there was an urgent need to train pump mechanics, and to form water-point management committees and platform-construction teams. Water was also key to peace at the local level, Parker observed. Traditional coping mechanisms and customary means of resolving disputes that threatened peaceful coexistence with neighbouring communities had been eroded by war, he explained. Competition for resources was frequently the cause of conflict in Sudan, and lack of water had often served as a flashpoint. In order to minimise potential conflict, he added, priority would be given to improving water facilities within host communities, avoiding, where possible, the establishment of new water points specifically for returnees.