Cholera fears as Sudan faces a worsening water crisis

As the civil war rages on in Sudan, in addition to food shortages, residents in the capital Khartoum are grappling with a worsening water crisis.

They now have to fetch water from the Nile River using carts, or purchase untreated water which has become scarce.

“We’ve been without water for 17 days. The situation is unbearable. We now have to buy water, but the prices are skyrocketing. Two barrels cost 1,000 Sudanese pounds (about $1.66),” says local resident, Ahmed Musa.

To put this into context, the average annual income for a Sudanese is $2,379, or about $6.5 per day, according to UN statistics.

The city’s key water infrastructure, including a Nile River water treatment plant and several urban supply stations, has been severely damaged in the ongoing fighting.

In addition, a shortage of personnel and spare parts means networks in multiple districts have been disrupted for months, leaving tens of thousands of households without water.

Drinking untreated water has exposed people to illnesses, including the waterborne bacterial disease, cholera.

As winter draws near, the worsening health crisis and lack of basic necessities threaten to further escalate the humanitarian situation in Sudan. 

The Sudanese Ministry of Health said Saturday that a vaccination campaign targeting more than 1.4 million people against cholera started in eastern and northern parts of the country.

Sudan has been ravaged by a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which started in mid-April last year.

Since start of the fighting, epidemic diseases such as cholera, malaria, measles, and dengue fever have spread, leading to hundreds of deaths.

The health ministry has so far reported 25,037 cases of cholera and 702 related deaths.

On Friday, the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, warned that 3.1 million people, including 500,000 children under five, are at risk of cholera in Sudan.