South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday handed over rehabilitated and expanded water supply system to authorities in Eastern Equatoria State.
The three- year project funded by the German government through the Development Bank (KfW) will provide safe and clean drinking water to 43,800 residents of Torit town.
Hamida Lasseko, UNICEF Representative in South Sudan said during the handover ceremony that the beneficiaries particularly women and children will benefit from clean and safe water.
She said the water supply system will also improve sanitation and hygiene at household levels.
“They will spend less time going to fetch water from far, but they will also use safe water which has been treated,” Lasseko said.
For her part, Mary Nadio Lodira, Deputy Governor of Eastern Equatoria State commended UNICEF and the German Embassy for providing clean drinking water to the population.
“Mind you this has actually reduced the level of problems with women. You know us women are multipurpose people. We get water from far away,” Lodira said.
Christian Sedat, German Ambassador in South Sudan disclosed that the German government has invested roughly 2 million U.S dollars in the water supply system.
“Two boreholes have been dug, 25 kilometers of water supply system has been installed and 25 new water kiosks have been built, and this will really make a difference to the population of Torit,” Sedat said.
Peter Mahal Dhieu, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Water Resources and irrigation said the water supply system will relieve Torit from water borne diseases such as cholera that used to be prevalent in the town.
“The amount of water as we have visited the elevated tanks is two systems that have been brought as new, one has the capacity of 100, another one is 60, that’s 160 new facilities,” Mahal said.
The upgraded water supply system in Torit includes two boreholes equipped with solar-powered submersible pumps, a 25-kilometre pipeline distribution network, and an additional 500 cubic meter storage.
The project has also added 25 new water kiosks to the existing eight ones which will reach more people and shorten distance to water collection points.
The rehabilitation and expansion work commenced with phase 1 in November 2022, which upgraded the water treatment plant.
By June 2023, phase 2 had restored the water supply and installed solar panels, generators and tanks.
The system now includes a chlorine dosing mechanism to minimize the risk of contamination during collection and storage to ensure water safety.
