Water crisis affects Khartoum and Darfur cities amid Ramadan, heat

Darfur's largest cities, El Fasher and Nyala, suffer from a shortage in drinking water and interruptions of the electricity supply on the sixth day of Ramadan and amid the heat. At least thirteen neighbourhoods in Khartoum are out of water, too, while the director of the city's water corporation is fired by the Governor.

Camp residents in the Otash camp for internally displaced people, near Nyala in South Darfur, informed Radio Dabanga about the situation there. There is an acute crisis of drinking water, as a result of the stalling of a number of pumps and water stations, and fuel shortages.

A sheikh in the camp: “The price for a barrel of water has risen to SDG 20($3.33), and a jar to ($0.33). […] We demand from the authorities working in the field of water to repair the water stations.”

The shortages, however, are caused by more than broken water pumps, it seems, as more big cities are coping with similar problems.

In Khartoum, many areas still experience a complete disruption in the water supply. El Kalakla El Wehda, Sangat, Halfayat El Mulok, Umbada Sabil, El Arda, El Fitehab, Abusid Murabat, Khartoum 3 Rumalia, Hila El Jadida, El Goz, Elduyum East and West, El Sahafa West square 31, and El Azhari are, according to our reports, the districts affected by the water outages.

The price of a barrel of water transported by donkey cart in El Kalakla El Wehda has amounted to SDG 75 ($12.50), and SDG 60 ($10) in Abusid Murabat, residents in the neighbourhoods told Radio Dabanga. Protests erupted in El Fitehab, Omdurman, on Sunday.

Khartoum water corp. director fired

The newly appointed governor of Khartoum state, Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, replaced the general-director of Khartoum State Water Corporation (KSWC) from his post on Sunday. Hussein declared short and long-term plans to achieve a radical solution for the water problems in the state within two years. The KSWC has more than once called for increasing water rates due to high operating costs.

MP Hamad Ghareeb revealed that there is an urgent summon for the Minister of Water Resources and Electricity, Moataz Moussa, to be questioned about the continuing water shortage in a number of Sudanese states, in particular Khartoum. The water crisis is urgent as the temperature had gone up to 40 degrees Celsius.