South Sudan WASH Baseline Akobo County, South Sudan - May 2016

Summary

In September 2015, the South Sudan WASH Cluster, along with the humanitarian community across the country, undertook the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) process in order to identify the overall needs and vulnerabilities of the crisis-affected population. It brought to light significant WASH-specific information gaps across South Sudan. In particular, various baseline assessments conducted by WASH actors produced incomparable data that could not be analysed together. The lack of inter-operable data made it challenging both to quantify needs and to accurately rank the severity of the WASH situation in the different administrative areas.

To address this, the Global WASH Cluster has supported actors in South Sudan to harmonize future assessments.
With the help of an Assessment Specialist and in partnership with REACH, a tool was designed to collect the minimum amount of necessary data in order to assess the WASH needs and vulnerabilities at the household level.
The tool was finalized through consultation with Cluster partners and a pilot assessment was conducted in Akobo County.

Akobo County is located in the north-eastern part of Jonglei State and has been severely affected by insecurity since the outbreak of conflict across South Sudan in December 2013. Akobo County is composed of 8 payams:
Bilkey, Dengjok, Gakdong, and Nyandit in Akobo East, and Barmach, Buong, Diror, and Walgak in Akobo West.
However, since the road connecting the two major population centres, Akobo Town and Walgak, is unusable for most of the year, and because of limited availability of transport, the Eastern and the Western parts of the county operate independently on many levels. For this reason, it was decided that the assessment would be conducted separately in these two areas.

This report presents the findings from two separate, yet comparable, rounds of data collection in Akobo County.
The first phase of data collection covered the 4 payams of Akobo East and took place between January 25th and 29th, 2016, while the second, covering the 4 western payams, took place between February 18th and 27th, 2016.
Assessed locations can be seen on Map 1 below. Cluster sampling was used to conduct the assessment and findings are assumed to be representative at county level with a confidence interval of 90% and a 5% margin of error.

The main findings of the report are as follows:

• Water Source: Akobo East - More than half the population reported having access to a water source that is considered safe (63%), with water coming from boreholes. Akobo West – The majority of the population reported having access to a water source that is considered safe (93%), with water coming from hand pumps.

• Water Consumption: Akobo East - 83% of households did not meet the Sphere standard of 15 litres per person per day and 10% of households reported consuming less than 5 litres per person per day; the most common cited reason for not having a sufficient amount of water was the lack of containers to carry or store water (80%). Akobo West – 86% of households did not meet the Sphere standard of 15 litres per person per day and 14% of households reported consuming less than 5 litres per person per day; the most common cited reason for not having a sufficient amount of water was the lack of containers to carry or store water (70%)

• Water Treatment: Akobo East - 89% of respondents reported not treating their drinking water while a high 92% of the households accessing an unsafe water source do not treat their water. Akobo West – 98% of respondents reported not treating their drinking water and all (100%) of households accessing an unsafe water source do not treat their water.

• Water and Protection: Akobo East - 12% of respondents reported feeling unsafe at one point or another while collecting water. Akobo West – Contrary to Akobo East a majority (65%) of respondents reported feeling unsafe at one point or another while collecting water in Akobo West.

• Access to Latrines: Akobo East - 78% of households do not have access to a household latrine. Akobo West – 91% of households do not have access to a household latrine.

• Handwashing Practices: Akobo East - Only 6% of respondents reported washing their hands at all critical times. Akobo West – 12% of respondents reported washing their hands at all critical times.

• Handwashing Materiel: Akobo East - 23% of assessed households reported having soap at the time of the assessment. Akobo West – 7% of assessed households reported having soap at the time of the assessment.

• Hygiene Promotion: Akobo East - 42% of assessed households had been reached by a hygiene promotion activity at one point or another in the year before the survey. Akobo West – 31% of assessed households had been reached by a hygiene promotion activity at one point or another in the year before the survey.