By Abraham Machuor Lum
A visit to the sleepy village of Abyei Cok in Rumbek, Southern Sudan, reminds one of an old saying – “every one for himself, God for us all.” In this sun-baked village, in Lake’s state, it is survival of the fittest as villagers scramble for a very scarce commodity, water. The only source of water here – an old well owned by an individual – serves 596 families, together with their livestock.
As the name suggests, the region should be by the lakeside but, this appears to be just a name, because the residents have been going thirsty for years due to a biting water shortage. The village is about 15 miles from state headquarters in Rumbek and is occupied by the sub clans of Pagok and Kongor that keep cattle in large numbers and cultivate cereals crops such as sorghum, millet, and groundnuts and during the rainy seasons.
The owner of the well, Mr Manuo Magok Kolnyin, says he dug the well in 1979 to serve the community living in the area together with their livestock. The locals have named the well after him. The area has a population of about 12,000 people and the majority of them draw their water from the Manuo well, while the rest walk several kilometres to the nearest river in search of water.
“The state recognised my services and gave me one hand pump to help serve the residents with water but, it broke down soon after it was delivered in 2009 forcing us to draw the water manually from the well,” said Kolnyin.
In an interview, a local resident, Achol Akech Chol, 40, said she travels for 5 hours every day to get drinking water from the Manuo well during dry seasons. “Because of the water scarcity, we eat only one meal a day. The little water I fetch from the well is also used by my goats,” she said.
The water shortage has forced families to use dirty water drawn from pools, resulting in a high prevalence of water born diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid and bilharzia. Achol said her family, including her, have on many occasions suffered from cholera and only survived by the grace of the Lord.
The water problem and other hardships in the area have also forced many children out of school. Achol, for example says that none of her five children go to school because they live almost 10 miles from the nearest one.
Another villager, Nyibol Ciman Ater, whose family numbers 13 members, says she travels for about 4 miles daily to get to the nearest water well. One of her children fell sick from diarrhoea last month and was taken to Rumbek hospital for treatment. “I was lucky because my child survived. My neighbour was not so lucky as her child died of the disease while being rushed to the hospital,” she said.
A livestock farmer from the area, Mr Marial Majok Deng, blamed the state government for sidelining the residents. “I have lost many cows due to lack of water and the future still looks very grim,” he said. Marial, 58, has four wives and 17 children. Two of his sons recently dropped out of school due to his inability to pay school fees. They are now helping him to look after the cattle. He explained that his family members suffer from stomach pains every time they drink water from the local rivers and wells.
Like many villagers who have gone through the same predicament, Marial says that the government should prioritise provision of safe drinking water because it would make such a huge difference to villager’s lives. He insists that once safe drinking water is available to villagers, most problems affecting rural communities would be solved once and for all.
“You can imagine that now we have many people suffering from water borne diseases, we also have many school age going children dropping out of schools because they have to help their parents to fetch water”, laments Marial.
38 year old Peter Kueth is a father of three and says that the best solution is for the government and non-governmental organisations to pool available resources and channel it into sinking boreholes, shallow wells and also water pans for harvesting rain water.
