Who needs alarm clocks when we have boreholes!

Five years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) access to clean drinking water remains a problem both in cities and in the rural areas across Sudan. The governments of the North or the South have not done enough to provide clean water to the people, as was committed to in the CPA of 2005.

In Juba, there are only two sources of drinking water; the Nile and boreholes. These boreholes are the cause of frequent fights amongst women. There are simply not enough bore holes to go around the population and thus it is the principle of first come first served which can create great injustice.  There is nobody responsible for order at the bore holes.  Often the neighborhood will only hear shouting and insults coming from the boreholes with people whose houses are near by using the shouts as their daily alarm clocks.

Women washing in a river used for drinking water

The Nile water consumed by many in Juba is not clean for drinking possilbly due to the hotels on the river banks that are accused of dumping their sewage in the Nile.  Also the trucks that suck up the water from the Nile and transport it to the residential areas are some times not clean and you often see people washing, urinating next to the water pumps.  Then in the rainy season, much of the waste litter is washed into the Nile.

Aid Agencies such as 'Population International-Sudan' are providing water guards to purify drinking water. But this does not reach every body or some cannot afford the guard.

As a result water borne diseases like cholera are very common across Sudan. Particularly during the rainy season  which comes straight after the elections, the hospitals are full of people affected by cholera or other water borne diseases. Guinea worm can also be contracted by drinking stagnant or dirty water.

With elections due in three weeks time, women in South Sudan are desperate to find a candidate that will change this situation.   The Governors of each state are the ones who can take responsibility for providing more boreholes and impose some order in the queuing so each women gets their fair amount.  In Juba, Central Equatoria State, Alfred Lodu Gore, the independent candidate for the governorship, is saying that he will challenge and change the politics of the borehole.  The independent candidates such as Gore may well get more support from women, as it is felt by many that the SPLM has been promising to provide basic services to the people but, so far, little has been done. South Sudan Legislative Assembly Speaker and SPLM leader James Wani Igga during his campaign few weeks ago, said clean drinking water had reached Kator and Munuki payams in Juba.  But the evidence says something different and people still only need boreholes near by to assure they wake each morning.