In an attempt to provide safe water, the Abyei Special Administrative Area (ASAA) authorities on Tuesday said they have installed three water yards in Abyei town and three more in Alal, Rumamer, and Mijak counties.
Abyei has registered deaths from hepatitis, cholera, and measles this year due to contaminated water.
Abyei Town Mayor Ajak Kuol said the population in Abyei Town faced water shortages and that they plan to install water yards in the Nai-Nai, Rumajak, and Buokchok residential areas.
“To address the inadequacy of drinking water, we installed three water yards in Abyei Town, especially in areas without a water supply,” he said. “One is erected in Rumajak because the residents lack this service, and it will serve the people of Nyinkuec. The second one is fixed in Buokchok, which is another populous area, and the third water yard is installed in the Nai-Nai area.”
Kuol said the Abyei Municipal Council also has plans to repair water yards in Wuonrok and Abyei-Dhieu-yom to provide safe water.
On his part, Nyang Doldol, the commissioner of Alal County, appreciated the Abyei government for the provision of water tanks and urged the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure to repair the remaining water yards in his area.
“We faced a problem of lack of clean water, but there is no problem now because we have one functioning water yard, the recently constructed one in Alal County,” he said. “However, we have five water yards in bad working conditions, and we requested the area administration to repair them. My administration will repair the hand pumps because the Kiir and Nyimuor rivers do not have enough water this year.”
Commissioner Doldo urged the government to repair water yards and points in the northern part of Abyei because Messirya nomads from Sudan always conflict with host communities over water during the dry season.
Residents lauded the Abyeu authorities for providing safe water, with Nyandeng Wek saying that safe water will check the spread of water-borne diseases.
“The yards provide clean drinking water compared to hand pumps. We used to take water with aquatic tablets, but the health ministry stopped providing them,” she said. “The other issue is that the government does not drain the stagnant water around the water yards, and it sinks into the soil and mixes with groundwater water leading to contamination.”