North Darfur sets-up water project for UN

The Governor of North Darfur instructed the Ministry of Finance to provide everything necessary for the water project in Darfur, implemented by Unicef and United Nations partners. The British Development Fund provides funding.

Governor Abdel Wahid Yousif said, after meeting with a delegation of the British Development Fund and Unicef officials, that the groundwater and surface sources of El Fasher provide up to 19,000 cubic metres of water. The actual need in the area is more than 40,000 cubic metres.

He said that the water project “is a priority for the state government in terms of resolving the problem of water”, in particular for displaced people and residents of areas in the periphery.

North Darfur has made an integrated plan, he added, to meet the water shortage in North Darfur in the period from May to July.

Unicef supports 13,000 refugees in Kario camp in Bahr El Arab locality with the rehabilitation of water yards and aids the the governmental Water and Sanitation Department (WES) in trucking water daily to Kario. Two boreholes were planned to be drilled in the refugee camp, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in January.

Red Sea state

Meanwhile residents of Herbagad in Tokar locality, in eastern Sudan's Red Sea state, have complained of extreme thirst and a lack of health and educational services.

Hadab El Amin, one of the native administrators, told Radio Dabanga that Herbagad is home to more than 3 million people. “They lack health facilities and schools. The only school was closed years ago.

“It is difficult for people to obtain drinking water, which also leads to the deterioration of agriculture.” He explained that certain trees, named Mesquite, that thrive in dry weather conditions.

El Amin appealed to the Red Sea state to intervene to save the residents of the area.