Juba, South Sudan
October 11, 2021—The internally displaced persons (IDPs) camping at Juba civilians protection site are calling on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to improve sanitation in the camp and to provide clean drinking water to the IDPs.
According to the information received by Nyamilepedia, the IDPs revealed that the UN has stopped supplying them with clean water in the camps and the toilets are inadequate for the population, making life more difficult for them.
The Camp Chairperson, who identified herself as Nyakoang Chuol Deng, said they lacks many facilities in the camps including clean water and these conditions have forced them to go and fetch water from the trenches.
“We lack many things in this camp; we don’t have toilets, we don’t have water, and our children now move outside the camp to fetch water from the trenches. If we die in this UN compound in Juba because of the issue of water yet we have the River Nile water flowing freely here in Juba, who is to blame? We are suffering because of the lack of water in this camp, and we are continuing to suffer from situations caused by men in this country,” Camp chairperson Deng told Radio Tamazuj.
One of the IDPs, Deng Nhial Chuol, said the lack of clean water has become a pressing issue.
” There is no water and we don’t know what is happening because the lack of water and food in the camp will likely cause a lot of diseases in the camp. Even if you walk around the camp now the toilets look just like a cattle camp, there is no order.”, Nhial added.
Bor Gai who spoke on behalf of Youth Forum in the Juba PoC also expressed his concern and had this to say:
“This is a concern to everyone in the camp because if there is no water, the sanitation is not good, So there will be a lot of problems that come with it. Right now, there are a lot of theft cases outside the camp and these come as a result of lack of water because our girls and mothers fetch water outside the camp.”
Last week, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hon. Manawa Peter Gatkuoth and other senior officials from the Ministry of Health paid a visit to POC to assess the humanitarian situation and pledged to provide water distribution system to the IDPs.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan has been accused of trying to divert funds that are meant for the IDPs to other responsibilities such as policing and roads that repair their dented relationship with the Kiir’s administration, leaving the IDPs in a more vulnerable situations to force them to leave their sites.
The UNMISS has withdrawn their forces from the civilians protection sites but earlier on pledged to continue providing basic services to the IDPs.
