South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Arich Deng Anyar
Life on the bank of the world’s longest fresh water river is not necessarily a license for free clean drinking water. The price of bottled water is hiking in Juba and its straining the pockets of consumers who are already stretched thin by a dire economic situation in the country.
The price of a half-liter bottle of water has increased from 1000 SSP to 1500 SSP, while a one and a half liter bottle increased from 2000 SSP to 2500 SSP, seemingly small increases but gravely affects consumption in the steaming weather of Juba.
“It has affected me so much because a lot of customers are complaining and the water itself isn’t selling like before,” shopkeeper Marcos Reech Bak told The Dawn from his shop in Mia Saba on the outskirt of Juba. “So we are just pushing,” he said.
Elizabeth Atong, a resident of Gudele 2, just outside Juba has abandoned drinking bottled water and turned to that pumped from the ground. “Since the price of the water increased, things are changing. Right now, we use the salt water for drinking,” Atong told The Dawn. “Right now, what we do, we just get this water that’s from the ground, pour it in a pot and we just leave it open overnight so that the salt can evaporate, then tomorrow we drink,” she said.
Adam, another consumer, at Mia Saba, who preferred to use only his first name has reduced on the water he drinks every day. “It has become very difficult for us to buy and to take water. Last time I was taking almost four to three bottles per day, but nowadays I take only two,” Adam told the Dawn.
The increase in water prices stems from the slowdown in production by companies who say they could no longer import plastic bottles since government had slapped extra taxes on them.
Fees of $0.01 for a bottle less than 600ML capacity and $0.02 for that more than 600ML capacity had been levied on importation into the country, according to the Undersecretary at Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Joseph African Bartel.
Bartel argued that the best solution for bottled water producing companies is to slap those fees on the consumers so that it would not affect production. “What we are doing is adding an environmental fee of 1 percent of a dollar to a bottle and so they have the prerogative of adding 1 percent to the price of the water,” Bartel said.
In Juba, 12 companies are in the bottled water production line with an output of 2 million bottles in a day, according to Bartel. “Usually there is this principle that the polluter pays principle but here we are not fining the water bottling factories. What we are doing is adding an environmental fee of 1 percent of a dollar to a bottle and so they have the prerogative of adding 1 percent to the price of the water,” Bartel said at a press conference in January. A deal was reached then between the companies producing water and his ministry and prices shot up.
Mustafa Abdallah Muhammad a shopkeeper in Munuki noted the increase in water has affected sales but won’t dare to stop selling it.
“Now, we’re selling the big one at 2500 SSP and the small one, from 1000 SSP, it has gone up to 1500 SSP, Muhammad said. “If I don’t bring water, I close the place, there will be no work,” he said. “At least, I will bring them, then I sell it. Not me only, all people, they are selling like that.”