If only we had clean water!

They say old broom knows all corners of the house. And River Yei (commonly known as Yei Kare) knows all the corners of Yei County.

As we slowly go from rainy season to hot season, many rivers in the county and other parts of the country have dried up. More rivers are expected to dry, too. During dry seasons, most of the county’s water sources, like rivers and wells dry up, only leaving big rivers flowing. It is during such seasons when Yei county faces severe water shortages. This is always followed by the breakout of diseases such as Cholera.

Many families move long distances to get water. When they get it, they make sure they use it sparsely as best as they can. It is also during such moments when most people do not take their regular baths.

River Yei keeps running during all seasons. Its water volume goes down a lot though during dry seasons. But it has upheld the lives of thousands of people living in the county. At the river this week, I met and talked to a young woman, one of the people getting water, washing clothes and dishes. And she told me:

“I prefer coming down here to wash dishes and do my laundry at the river because the water is available in abundance. This is better than carrying many jerry cans of water for three miles on my head to take them home.”

People come as far as five miles away from all over the town and its suburbs to get water at the river. It is expected to be the same story this season.

Waterhole in Juba

In spite of the availability of boreholes that provide clean water in the town, they are not enough to provide water to Yei's population of about eighty thousand people in Yei. The situation is worsened when some wells dry up during the hot season. Very many people end up getting water from the streams around and this causes the outbreak of diseases in the area.

According to the Yei Health Department, Cholera is commonly caused by the poor sanitation and the dirty water normally collected from the rivers around is not clean for domestic use. This causes water borne and air borne diseases.

The government and some NGOs have put announcements over the radio stations in Southern Sudan, encouraging people to maintain hygiene. People are supposed to be even more cautious especially during this month until the end of March next year. We hope everyone will be at his/her guard to prevent the deadly diseases spreading further.