Women protest against water outages in Sudan’s capital

Dozens of women went to the streets in southern Khartoum on Wednesday to protest against the ongoing drinking water crisis.

With concrete blocks, they barred the traffic from passing Square 15 in the Jabra district and the main street connecting the southern districts with eastern Khartoum.

The women chanted anti-government slogans, and demanded the immediate provision of water. After one hour, the police intervened and dispersed the demonstrators.

During the last months, several street protests erupted in various partis of the Sudanese capital because of water outages. The newly appointed governor of Khartoum state, Abdelrahim Hussein, fired the manager of the Khartoum State Water Corporation (KSWC) mid June, and allocated SDG9.5 million ($1.57 million) to solve the drinking water crisis in the city, reportedly populated by seven to eight million. 

The emergency budget will be used to maintain and establish new power generators at the water station, to avoid a negative impact by the electricity shortage. Also plans are being made to realise a stable supply of drinking water from the Nile river, and to abandon the ground water production in the state altogether.