South Sudan: A Case Study

South Sudan water crisis

In an ideal world, every person on this planet would have access to safe drinking water. In Africa, issues related to accessibility and sporadic occurrence paired with increasing population pressure prevent this goal from being achieved. In this blog post I will look at the ongoing water crisis in South Sudan and the role of the Nile for the country. The Nile River Basin is a geographic area of high water availability but as a direct consequence of the mismanagement of access to and usage of it, hydropolitical issues have been the root cause of international disputes between the riparian states over the past century.

Credits: The World Bank Group

South Sudan water conflict

The war in South Sudan has escalated to unexpected levels. According to aid officials, emergency and food trucks are being hijacked and intentionally blocked by both rebel forces and government soldiers. Efforts by aid workers to reach vulnerable populations have been complicated by killings and targeted ambushes by these groups. The prevention of aid getting to those in desperate need of basic supplies and health treatments has led to the United Nations declaring parts of South Sudan as a famine zone. Here, whole communities are cut off by malaria infested swamps, trying to survive off plants growing in the bogs and worm-infested swamp water (Gettleman, 2017). Due to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, infrastructure services and maintenance of water sources have been neglected completely.

Further, access to the transboundary Nile water source is highly disputed between the bordering countries, causing severe water stress (drop4drop). This failure of meeting the water demand of the Sudanese population was intensified by the high proportion of water usage by the agricultural sector, with an astonishing 97% of water allocated to the agricultural sector (Yohannes, 2008). The shift from traditional to perennial farming and irrigation techniques exacerbated the lack of safe water available for domestic use (Johannes, 2008). A mere 2% of water is used for domestic purpose , in comparison to 13% in the USA (drop4drop). With water prices rising and the quality declining, the current 55% of sudanese people that have access to clean drinking water is set to diminish even further, marking the critical state of South Sudan’s population. Doctors without borders have declared an ‘alarming humanitarian situation’ (Doctors without Borders, 2017), with huge displacement of people in critical condition.

South Sudan in the Nile Basin conflict

In the specific case of South Sudan, there is a case of uneven distribution and mismanagement of the water stream. Following South Sudan’s independence in 2011 it made the 11th riparian state of the river basin, as which it plays a vital role in relation to the other ten riparian states. According to the 1959 Agreement the two main confluences of the Nile River flow from Egypt and Sudan add 55.5bn m3 and 18.5bn m3 respectively (Mekonnen, 1999). Despite 72% of the Nile water being fed in from the Blue Nile basin from Egypt, the White Nile water in South Sudan is silt-free (Mekonnen, 1999). Combined with the high water loss and possibility of conserving a large part of this water body, the stakes for South Sudan actually equate those of Egypt and Ethiopia. About 90% of southern Sudan lies within the Nile Basin, and approximately 20% of the Nile Basin occupies southern Sudan (Salman, 2011); it makes up about a third of the size of the Nile Basin in all the Sudan before flowing downstream.

One of the huge problems faced by South Sudan is the high evaporation rate: approximately 50% of the waters of the White Nile, the tributary flowing through South Sudan, is lost through evaporation and seepage in swamps (Salman, 2011), which is especially detrimental to the three largest cities in the country that are all situated along the White Nile and rely heavily on its waters. Looking forward, to prevent the erosion of territorial sovereignty, a central government must act in confidence and collaboration with the surrounding states, increasing conversation and collaboration.