ReliefWeb

Simple, yet robust, mechanisms for drinking water distribution are significantly improving the quality of life for the people of Renk, especially the women and children.

By Pavithra S. Rangan

RENK, South Sudan, 25 March 2018 – Before the civil war broke out in 2013, Akout Deng’s five children were enrolled in the nearby government school. Today, the school has no teachers and barely any of the 200 children in the Abu Khadra village, including hers, have access to an education. At mid-day, they are at the nearby canal washing clothes and dishes.

Until last year, it was this water that they would help their mothers fetch for all household needs, including cooking and drinking. With the River Nile over four-kilometers away, a canal built by the Sudanese government brings untreated water from the tributary close to the village. “During the dry season, we have to dig the canal for over an hour to get water. The water that emerges after digging a first and then a second layer, is dark brown and unusable. The third layer is somewhat better and we would drink this water,” says 26-year-old Akout Deng. “I would leave with my children at eight in the morning and return at noon. We would make two such trips a day to meet all our daily needs.”

Those in the village also add that children would often fall into these pits and seriously injure themselves. “One child died after collapsing in one of these pits. The family has now crossed over to Sudan,” says Mohammed Agot, one of the residents in Abu Khadra.

Renk County in the former Upper Nile state has experienced multiple bouts of conflict and displacement since December 2013. The area is now home to both internally displaced people and those from host communities, who also have been displaced. Protracted conflict in South Sudan continues to affect the already poor rate of access to basic facilities, including safe water. This has, in turn, increased children’s vulnerability to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera. The country suffered its most severe cholera outbreak in history, which started in June 2016 and continued for a year.

Akout Deng displays a bottle with the water she has just collected from the canal. It contains a brown liquid with dirt particles floating throughout. “This is the water we were drinking,” she says. “We had no other choice and our children would fall ill every other day.”

Owing to the emergency, UNICEF and its partners have implemented crucial water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions focusing on water supply/distribution, construction of sanitation facilities and other hygiene promotion activities. Simple, yet robust, water distribution models have been enabled in several areas of Renk by installing surface water treatment systems. Through a simple process, water is pumped from the Low Nile in the region, by way of a generator, into an ‘onion tank’ where it is circulated in ammonium sulphate to filter the first level of impurities. Once the substance settles, this water is pumped into a 20,000 liter ‘bladder tank’ for chlorination. After a 30-minute chlorination process, the water is ready for collection from central hand pumps installed in these communities. Making efficient use of the already existing infrastructure to increase the impact of its interventions, existing water tanks have also been repaired for use.

Community members are trained as water operators to ensure regular maintenance and refueling of the system. They are also given basic training on the monitoring of water quality by conducting chlorine tests etc. For over a year now, some 21,000 (over 50 per cent of them female) inhabitants in the Abu Khadra, Romella, Gerger and Jelhak regions of Renk have access to this clean portable water.

“Our children rarely fall sick ever since we started using this clean water. Diseases in the community in general have reduced over the last year,” says the thankful 22-year-old Fathima Ali, who lives in Gerger village.

Data from the clinics in Renk suggest that diarrhea, a problem largely associated with limited access to improved quality water and poor hygiene practices, has dropped significantly from around 18 per cent six months ago, to an average of 9.9 per cent.

“We are able to save the money we used to spend on transportation to the hospital, medical examinations and medication. Because of this, we have more food at home and I have even registered my daughter in school with that money,” says Fathima. The school fee for a child is 500 SSP for a term and she would previously spend at least 4,000 SSP on treating her children.

The treated water is also being piped to nearby health centers in the region. Sanitation facilities such as shared toilets (one for 4 households) are being planned for both the urban and rural communities. Efforts are also underway to promote good hygiene practices by running awareness campaigns in communities and providing non-food items such as buckets, soaps and menstrual health management kits.

Between January and March 2018, nearly 350,000 conflict-affected people have been provided with access to safe water and safe sanitation facilities. At least 250,000 people have been reached with WASH core pipeline supplies. “A place cannot be called a home without water. This programme has made this place a healthy home for us after years of struggle. Abu Khadra was once heavily populated, but majority of them migrated because of the water problem. But now people are slowly returning,” says the village chief.

(Grants to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities are generously provided by UKAID.)