Water for Darfur

By Malene Haakannson, DCA-ACT International

Zalingei, Darfur, June 28, 2007 - Empty plastic containers snake along a red sandy path in Zalingei's Hassa Hissa camp. Women in colorful toubs (the traditional wear of women in this part of the world) wait patiently in the long line for water - one of the most precious commodities in this dusty, parched region of Sudan.

ACT-Caritas, the joint humanitarian operation established by ACT International and Caritas Internationalis some four years ago in response to the crisis in Darfur, currently serves some 72,000 people in the area of West Zalingei, providing them with access to clean water.

Danish-based ACT member DanChurchAid secured the much-needed funding for this part of the operation through the European Commission’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO), funding that made possible not only access to clean drinking water and basic latrines, but also opportunities for hygiene awareness training in the camps and surrounding villages. Boreholes were sunk, water pumps installed, and water tanks set up where the water table was too low to sink boreholes. Old wells were also rehabilitated.

Simon Peter Odong, a water engineer with ACT-Caritas and water and sanitation adviser for the ECHO component of the program, says that access to water differs from camp to camp and village to village.

“It is difficult in Hassa Hissa camp,” he explains. “The water table is very low, so hand-dug wells are not an option. Also, many wells and boreholes dry out from April to June,” he says, adding that the quality of the water is not that good.

He estimates that each person has access to between four and five litres of water a day, but recent arrivals have put enormous pressure on the scarce water supply that has served some 42,000 people until now.

In Khamsadagaig, a smaller camp in Zalingei, the water situation is much better. Here, each person has access to more than 15 litres of water a day.

Much of the humanitarian aid to Darfur is used in the camps for displaced people. But the needs in the villages surrounding the camps are equally severe.

“In general, the water situation is better in the camps than in the villages. A village of 500-600 inhabitants may only have one water pump,” Odong says.

The biggest challenge now, however, is the deteriorating security situation, which saw some 107,000 people displaced between January and April this year, according to the UN. The ECHO-funded program has seen the ACT-Caritas water and sanitation team reaching out to 20 villages in the Zalingei area, but recent skirmishes and attacks have forced the work to be put on hold.

Gos Grab is home to 200 people and is one of the villages that has been assisted. Where it would have taken a young boy and his donkey about four hours on average to fetch water for his family, the water project will ensure that a hand pump is installed, giving people access to water near their homes.

Training people in good hygiene practices has also been an important component of the water and sanitation program. In the camps, volunteers are trained to mobilize their own communities through theatre, campaigns and women groups, all in an effort to promote good hygiene practices.

Hamidya Camp is an example of how this has paid off. The streets are noticeably clean, with very little garbage strewn around.

For Aisha, one of the volunteers who received training, there is power in the simple hygiene message of cleaning one’s cooking utensils, storing water correctly, using soap and washing one’s hands. “Before, we took our children to the hospital when they had diarrhea. Now we know why they get it and how to prevent it.”

In the villages, water committees are also being established. Their responsibility is to mobilize the rest of the community in taking care of the water sources - fencing the water pump to stop animals from drinking from the same water as people, for instance. Good hygiene practices are key.