Port Sudan’s water shortage worsening

Prices for drinking water are soaring amid an acute drinking water shortage in Port Sudan.

A caller told Radio Dabanga that the government lacks interest to find a radical solution to the problem of water through the establishment of dams, and that “Port Sudan’s problem has been exploited for political and electoral purposes”.

Yesterday Sheba Dirar, the head of the National Beja Congress, told Radio Dabanga that the residents are fed-up with practices of the state government, headed by Governor Ali Hamid.

He said that “Port Sudan is lacking drinking water amid rise of food prices. Water is available only in government facilities”.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has pledged to support the financing of existing and future Port Sudan water projects.

Ali Ahmed Hamid, the Governor of the Red Sea state said at a news conference in Khartoum on on Tuesday that the state government’s priority is to resolve the water problem by developing its own resources, expansion of drilling of a number of wells and providing them with solar energy.

He announced the opening of a factory for pipes to transport water to the population of the state.

He pointed to the implementation of ambitious plans to provide the Red Sea state with water from the River Nile.