Drinking water crisis in Sudanese capitals

Since the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan, the capitals of North Darfur, Red Sea, and Blue Nile states are witnessing a severe shortage of drinking water.

Residents of El Fasher, Port Sudan, and Ed Damazin complained to Radio Dabanga that they struggle to collect enough drinking water to break the fast.

A North Darfur activist told Radio Dabanga that the heads of the residential districts of El Fasher locality demanded “actions on the ground instead of words in the air” from Commissioner El Tijani Abdallah in a meeting in El Fasher last week.

The more than 150,000 displaced people living in the Zamzam camp near El Fasher are as well suffering from thirst. “Many people cannot afford to pay SDG 30 ($4.50) for a barrel of water in the camp,” a Zamzam camp elder said.

Port Sudan

An activist reported from Port Sudan, the capital of eastern Sudan’s Red Sea state, that the water crisis increased “since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan”.

He said that most of the city's districts are suffering from long water outages. “The El Mirghaniya and Tamei districts are cut off since months.”

Pipeline

The residents of the Erkawit district in the northern part of Blue Nile state capital Ed Damazin are complaining of thirst because “the water pipeline stopped providing water four months ago”.

They complained about the commercial water prices. “We now have to pay SDG 24 ($4) for a barrel of water,” a housewife reported from Erkawit.