Port Sudan water shortage – Red Sea Councillor warns of ‘real disaster’

A member of the Legislative Council of Red Sea state, Hamid Idris Suleiman, has warned of “a real disaster in the coming days” as the water crisis in and around Port Sudan deteriorates on a daily basis. “The high temperatures are exacerbating the situation, but the Khartoum government has not yet come up with any alternative sources or viable solutions.” Suleiman told Radio Dabanga that although the Legislative Council is well disposed to the Khartoum cause, when Red Sea State Governor Mohamed Tahir Aila met with President Omar Al Bashir, “he only came back with promises without solutions”. Suleiman mentions that all Governor Aila returned with was “the National Congress Party’s instruction to Legislative Council members not to talk about the water crisis again”. “The members of the Legislative Council make no decisions nor have they any political will other than that of the National Congress Party, which is run by a group headed by Al Bashir, so I did not expect that there would be any solutions forthcoming from the Khartoum government,” he said. Suleiman expressed surprise at “the efforts of the National Congress Party leaders in Red Sea state regarding mobilisation for Jihad”. “By opening recruitment camps, focusing on mobilisation and disregarding the drought that’s threatening their state, they are forgetting the problems of citizens who are about to die of thirst.” Radio Dabanga reported last month that Red Sea State’s Ministry of Education was to close schools and kindergartens “due to a lack of drinking water”. File photo: A water vendor in Red Sea state (UNEP) Related: Water shortage closes schools in eastern Sudan – rebel sympathies grow (31 May 2013)