Dirty Water is All They Have

When Every Sip Comes with a Risk

In South Sudan, water isn’t just a commodity – it is a matter of life or death.

Think of a typical day – how does water shape your day? You shower in the morning. Wash your hands. Brew your coffee. Rinse dishes. Cook meals. What if every drop was dirty—filthy water to drink, to cook with, to bathe your children in?

More than half the people living in South Sudan have no clean water to use for any of these things. Only 10% have access to improved sanitation.

Water is universally accepted as an intrinsic right. So much so, that denying an individual water is considered a human rights violation. Access to safe drinking water is a recognized human right by international law.

Water isn’t an option, it’s a necessity to stay alive. Yet when the only option is contaminated, water becomes a potential curse that could infect and kill.

A person can go a mere 3 days without water. Parents faced with the choice between giving their children dirty water or none at all are forced at their own peril to use the only water they have. 

“When the choices are either to be thirsty or drink dirty water, people have to
choose the dirty water.” – The Borgen Project

Would you drink this water? This is what they use to cook, wash, and drink with.

This is often a muddy watering hole in the ground, or a bacteria-ridden stream. The water may contain traces of feces from livestock, polluted runoff from farmlands, or be teeming with parasites.

In the dry season that lasts for months each year in South Sudan, water supplies become even more scarce. Desperate families dig deep in the ground until they can find muddy water. For many, it’s the only option.

Drinking filthy water causes diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery, guinea worm, and even polio.

Waterborne disease is one of the top killers of children in South Sudan. According to UNICEF, more than 85,000 children under 15 die every year here from diarrhea linked to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. This is more than all the child deaths arising from conflict and violence in the region.

It has been reported that more people in South Sudan die from a lack of safe drinking water than from AIDS, measles, and malaria combined.

Sadly, years of war and conflict have destroyed much of South Sudan’s water system infrastructure. Every morning families must search for clean water to meet their daily needs.

Women and Girls Suffer

In South Sudanese culture, the burden of finding and retrieving water for the household most often falls upon women and girls. Having to travel long distances daily to find water puts women and girls in jeopardy. They’re left at risk of assault and other hazards while sometimes hauling up to 50 gallon water containers for many miles. 

Girls who spend hours a day finding and hauling water are unable to go to school, and will never receive an education. This often chains them to a lifetime of poverty and puts them at risk of becoming child brides.

Girls forced to haul water for hours daily will never have a chance to go to school.

Worsened by Sudan’s War and Refugee Crisis

The struggle to find clean water in South Sudan just got harder. With war in Sudan now raging for more than two years, over a million people have fled to South Sudan, a country already teetering under severe food insecurity. The burden of a million refugees makes South Sudan’s limited water supply even more precarious.

A child who is severely dehydrated cries, but she can shed no tears.

It’s the tragic reality that innocent children suffer first in the face of food or water shortages. Little ones are quick to succumb to dehydration. A severely dehydrated child may still cry out—but no tears will fall. Her body is desperately holding on to every drop of moisture it has left, just to keep her organs functioning. There’s simply no water left for tears.

A dehydrated child doesn’t have enough water left in her body to make tears.

More Than a Glass of Water

The single act of drilling a well to provide clean water is one of the most cost effective ways to turn around an entire community. It’s so much more than a mere glass of water – it’s a lifeline. See the powerful impact clean water can have on a community in need:

WHAT A CLEAN WATER WELL MEANS IN SOUTH SUDAN

85,000 children under 15 will die here this year from contaminated water.

Sudan Relief Fund has been actively fighting the plight of families subjected to filthy drinking water. In 2024, our donors and partners made it possible to drill over two dozen wells in needy areas across South Sudan.

Recently, we successfully installed five new wells in Ave Maria Parish, where more than 600 internally displaced people have taken refuge after fleeing violence and war. For too long, they relied on murky, unsafe water for drinking. 

Now, thanks to our donor community, they finally have clean water. In the video below, you’ll see the community rejoicing—singing, praying, and giving thanks as a blessing was given over the new well.

New Urgent Need in Bentiu

We have received an urgent request for help from Bentiu, the newest diocese in South Sudan, which is overseen by Bishop Christian Carlassare. Bishop Christian has asked if we can fund  clean water wells right now, including both solar powered submersible wells as well as a hand pump well. The urgent needs and concerns of this community are:

Dry season can last for six months with temperatures exceeding 120 degrees.

So Much Impact for So Little

It’s surprisingly economical to build a well in South Sudan, or fund a portion of a well’s expense. In fact, $40 US dollars can provide up to 150 gallons of pure, clean, safe drinking water for a family in need.

A generous gift of $15,000 can fund an entire hand pump well, and a gift of $30,000 can provide one solar powered submersible well—providing safe, life-giving water to a community in need for decades to come.

Water should be a source of life, not something that brings sickness or death. Clean water brings life to children, families, and entire communities. Even a small investment can lead to generations of improved health and opportunity.

When you turn on the water in your kitchen, or fill up a glass to drink, please remember the desperate people in Bentiu who would give anything to have what you have available every day.

Together we can make that happen. Clean water literally makes the difference between life and death. Would you give a cup of life to a child across the world today?

Sincerely,

Neil A. Corkery President