Providing Safe Drinking Water With Community Support in South Sudan

Due to insecurity and the amount of time required to reach clean water, many individuals in Mayendit frequently resort to drinking dirty, stagnant surface water, such as from puddles or rivers, that may have also been used for bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning kitchen utensils. The swampy, flood-prone terrain in Mayendit makes it nearly impossible to transport large mechanical rigs to the area to drill for water. However, USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) partner Samaritan’s Purse recognized that access to safe drinking water was essential in combatting the effects of acute malnutrition and improving the health of communities in Mayendit and decided to bring in a water drilling system that uses human energy in place of a diesel-powered engine—a valuable tool in an area where fuel is in short supply and more complicated machines can be difficult to repair. Samaritan’s Purse trained local staff to operate the manual drill and then the team got to work, drilling boreholes throughout Mayendit so that residents of the county could more readily access clean water.