Sudan: Acute drinking water shortage in South Kordofan, Blue Nile

Attributed variously to corruption and neglect of water pumps and infrastructure under the former regime, parts of Sudan are suffering severe drinking water shortages. In Delling in South Kordofan, residents say the current shortage is due to the poor management of water administration in the town. In El Fereish in El Dindir locality in Blue Nile people have complained of severe lack of water due to the malfunctioning of the only water source in the area two years ago.

Delling residents told Radio Dabanga that the town’s water sources should be quite sufficient to fill the network, but they have suffered from continuous cuts for a long time. “The price of a barrel of water has jumped from SDG 50* to SDG 70 in the town,” they said.

They allege that “the department of water management sells a share of the resident’s water to the owners of tankers without receipts”.

A leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change, Abdallah Abuhum, told Radio Dabanga that the Delling water crisis is associated with “the structures of the former regime and their persistent control over the institutions in the town”.

He stressed that the solution to the water crisis depends on the dismantling of the remnants of deposed Al Bashir regime and the elimination of its affiliates in Delling.

On Friday, residents El Fereish in El Dindir locality in Blue Nile complained about the acute lack of water due to the malfunctioning of the only water source in the area two years ago.

Residents from the village told Radio Dabanga that they resorted to water pumping machines, but they too stopped working. “Now we rely only on fetching water from the adjacent village of El Kamrab,” they said.

Residents appealed to the authorities in Sennar state to take the issue seriously and provide water for the people in the area.

*USD 1 = SDG 55.1375 at the time of posting. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily middle US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

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