No water in El Gedaref districts, eastern Sudan

Several residential districts of El Gedaref city have been cut off from the water supply for more than a week.

Mohamed Mahmoud, Acting Director of the El Gedaref Water Corporation acknowledged the “acute water shortage, especially in western districts of the city”.

He told Radio Dabanga on Tuesday that “the water engines and pipes were in urgent need of maintenance”.

According to the head of the Popular Committee of El Jeneina district in the city, Abdelaziz Yagoub, the maintenance is badly prepared.

“The work is taking much too long,” he told this station. “The people in the western districts of Oktoberat, El Sufi El Azrag, El Jeneina, and Kerfes Wad El Kebir have had to make do without water provision for more than a week. The price of a barrel of water from street vendors has risen from SDG6 ($1) to SDG24 ($4).

“We have complained to the Water Corporation many times, to no avail. The current water problem is just exacerbating the suffering of the people in El Gedaref, who are attempting to survive unemployment and sky-rocketing prices,” Yagoub added.

In late February, Radio Dabanga reported long interruptions of water provision in El Gedaref town. They have become “a common occurrence”, activist Jaafar Khidir told Radio Dabanga at the time.