When Every Sip is a Risk

Cardinal Pleas for Clean Water to Heal his People

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Juba in South Sudan, issued an appeal to Sudan Relief Fund on behalf of his people suffering severely from lack of clean water: 

Dear friends and partners,

I am reaching out for your help today because 60 percent of the people of South Sudan have no clean water. 

They drink, cook, wash utensils, and bathe with contaminated water. Can you imagine doing this? Yet many people in South Sudan do this every day.

You may wonder why they would drink such water. Because for so many, it’s all they have. There is no other choice.

Many years of war have devastated my country’s infrastructure while it struggled for independence from an oppressive dictator. Years of extreme poverty have further contributed to the lack of clean water.

In South Sudan, families may face death in each drop – forced to drink from contaminated sources that often spread deadly disease. Your support can bring them clean water and true life.

Let me tell you about a friend in my parish. Lokiliri and her family are hardworking people of God. Lokiliri would trek for six miles every day, only to reach a small, muddy watering hole. The water was shared by both people and animals. She gathered the dirty water in a heavy container for her family’s washing, cooking, and yes, drinking. 

Lokiliri’s trip was perilous. Women traveling along the secluded route were often assaulted. Some were even killed. Even after such a risk, the dirty water she collected was dangerously unsafe. Over time, each of Lokiliri’s three children was stricken with life threatening illnesses, including malaria and guinea worm.

More than a million refugees in South Sudan add to the strain on meager water supplies.

Here in South Sudan Death Lurks in Contaminated Water

Oppressing Women and Girls

I shared with you the dangers women like my friend Lokiliri face in their search for water. The duty of collecting water is done every day by women and young girls. It often takes hours. For this reason many girls are unable to go to school.

But when there is a well in a community, women are protected from perilous hikes through the bush. Girls can go to school. This changes their future. Without education, girls may be sent away very young for arranged marriages. Others may work chores in labor intensive places like cattle camps.

Clean water wells save girls from assault and safeguard their chance to go to school.

Girls spend hours hauling dirty water, putting them in danger and denying them time to go to school.

More People, Less Water

My friends and partners, the refugee crisis in South Sudan has only made the struggle to find clean water even more difficult. This last year, our people were afflicted by one of our country’s worst cholera outbreaks, in large part because of the lack of clean water and sanitation in overcrowded refugee camps. It breaks my heart to see this happen. 

More than a million displaced people have come across our borders since war started in Sudan. But there is no more water available than there used to be – now only more people competing for insufficient amounts. This causes additional suffering for refugees and our host communities.

A well changes everything – restores health, stops waterborne disease, childhood deaths, and peril to girls.

Clean Water is Life Changing

“My friend, clean water changes everything.” -Cardinal Stephen

Here are some of the many benefits from one well. It truly is life changing.

• Children remain healthy and are able to go to school
• Mothers have healthier babies
• Families drink, bathe, cook, and wash dishes in safe water
• Healthy fathers can work to support their families
• Girls can go to school instead of hauling water
• Families have a steady water source to sustain crops and livestock
• Families are protected in droughts and annual dry seasons
• Benefits provided by the wells last for years

I am happy to tell you today my friend Lokiliri and her family have access to clean water from a community well built by the generosity of Sudan Relief Fund donors. I am humbled to report that her family is now healthy and thriving. Her eldest child, 16 year-old Oler, overcame near-fatal dysentery that left him on the verge of death for many months. He now stands strong and tall and no longer suffers these symptoms. Thanks to supporters like you, they are blessed to drink clean, pure water that is free of deadly bacteria. 

Choosing between sickness or dehydration is a cruel choice. But you can change this, so parents do not have to face an agonizing decision with their children’s lives.

A single drink of polluted water can kill. But many families have nowhere else to turn.

I have witnessed firsthand the blessings a well can deliver to a struggling community. In my diocese of Juba and many other locations across this nation, Sudan Relief Fund well projects have brought health and hope to countless souls who for so long had none. 

I am asking you to give from your heart to support more well-building projects across my struggling country and bring the miracle of fresh, clean water to my people.

In Christ,

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla

Metropolitan Archbishop of Juba