Water shortage in Darfur: Mother and daughter ‘die of thirst’

A pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter died of thirst in El Radoom locality in South Darfur, a representative of the area told the Sudanese Parliament this week. He reported that the health of pregnant women suffers from the lack of drinking water.

In remarks to reporters in Khartoum, representative Mohamed Mousa Andessu of El Radoom constituency said that the pregnant woman and her daughter travelled on a donkey from Legdeba to Wad Hajam to fetch water. The child and the woman with the baby in her womb died of thirst before reaching Joigain area.

The lack of water west of El Goz also led to the death of hundreds of cattle, horses and donkeys, Andessu said. “Humans and animals drink from the same water source west of El Goz.”

According to him a number of pregnant women suffered from preterm labour, because of the scrambling to get water.

South Kordofan

The residents of Habila locality in South Kordofan have also witnessed an extreme lack of drinking water these days.

On Thursday, witnesses from Habila told Radio Dabanga that residents of Shoruru, Kadaro and El Kafair have little access to drinking water. They depend on reservoirs to get water, which have dried up because of the delay of rainfall of this year.

Furthermore the reservoirs are small in size, a witness said, and local authorities have not carried out any maintenance. The price of a barrel of water has amounted to SDG30 ($4.90) in Habila, an activist from the area said. The activist added that the residents now fetch drinking water from distant water sources.