NEW WATER YARD BRINGS HOPE FOR RESIDENTS OF NEW FANGAK

34-year-old Nyayang Nyan is among hundreds of thousands of returnees who left Sudan to seek refuge and safety in South Sudan during the intense fighting in Khartoum. In search for safety for her children, she settled in New Fangak, as she felt safe for her children. Her husband, who she has not been in touch in a while, is based in Bor and due to the flooding situation in Fangak County that has led to damaged transport infrastructure, access to public transport services to other locations has been difficult to access. Nyayang has to look after her five children, as she is all they have. Her 13-year-old daughter, Nyamuch helps her with most of the house chores and looking after her siblings as she goes out in search for food for her family.

Nyayang says that she is managing to cope with the situation in her new environment although feeding and clean water has been a huge challenge. Extreme weather fluctuations linked to climate change, including floods and droughts, have affected thousands of people across the county, destroying crops and livestock, making it progressively difficult for communities and families to access clean water and put food on the table.

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She acknowledges the efforts put in by Action Against Hunger to pull up a clean water yard that has seen her family consume clean water as compared to before when she came and they consumed water from the nearby river.

“l use the water from the borehole to cook and it’s safe for my children to drink. I also use it to wash my dishes as it is not contaminated and dirty like the river water," Nyayang says.

The increased population in the area has led a rise in demand for clean water and other resources in New Fangak. Most of the boreholes that supplied water in the area are either broken, damaged and or contaminated because of floods from 2019. This has led to an outbreak of hepatitis A that has claimed lives of many in the area where clean water supply became is huge challenge. Hepatitis A is closely associated with consumption of unsafe water or food, inadequate sanitation, poor personal hygiene among other causes.

With funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Action Against Hunger in a quest to save lives of the affected community in new Fangak, refurbished and erected a clean water yard, from one of the damaged boreholes that supplies clean water for over 500 households in New Fangak in one day.

The new water yard, took 14 days to construct with a ?drill sank 40 meters deep , installed with complete solar panels are set above the tank to receive direct sunlight while the controller is placed under the tank with connecting cables running to the borehole stand. During the day, the borehole is able to supply 2,800L / hour into the tank as it only produces water when it is sunny or bright. When the tank is full, the float switch in the tank turns off the pump. The water is chlorinated up to 0.5g to kill any bacteria, viruses and other microbes making it safe for human consumption before the water vaults are opened to transmit the water to the tap stands for the community to consume.

Chlorination happens to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid. This is the only clean water point in New Fangak and thousands of beneficiaries walk long distances to access this clean and safe water for their domestic use and consumption. Action Against Hunger aims to erect more of this water yard with more funding to support many more like Nyamuch and her mother to continue living a decent life as they consume clean and safe water.