KHARTOUM, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Residents in Port Sudan, the capital of the Red Sea State in eastern Sudan, are grappling with a severe drinking water crisis following the collapse of the Arbaat Dam in August and an influx of displaced people fleeing the ongoing civil war.
Animal-drawn carts have reappeared on the streets of this coastal city, transporting potable water from limited sources located 20 kilometers north of Port Sudan to households and businesses.
The collapse of the Arbaat Dam, previously the city's primary source of fresh water, has caused water prices to more than double. A 220-liter barrel now costs 25,000 Sudanese pounds (about 10 U.S. dollars on the parallel market), according to Mustafa Hamad, a local water carrier.
While the demand for water carriers has surged, those in the profession face challenges in sourcing water themselves. "Often, we return from the station empty-handed, and residents struggle to believe us. Sometimes, I even have to open the barrel to show that it's empty," Hamad told Xinhua.
Desalination plants have provided some relief, meeting a fraction of Port Sudan's daily potable water needs. However, plant operators are grappling with soaring production costs.
"Water treatment is expensive. With the continued power outages, we rely mainly on generators that consume a lot of fuel, leading to higher costs," Moaz Yousif, the owner of a desalination plant in Hadal neighborhood, west of Port Sudan, told Xinhua.
The crisis has forced some residents to resort to salty and polluted water as an alternative, leading to health problems.
"I did not have kidney disease before arriving here," Awatif Ismail from Al-Sika Hadeed refugee camp, told Xinhua, noting that consuming water unfit for drinking has severely affected her health and that of her four children.
The swelling population in Port Sudan, which now includes nearly 321,000 displaced people, has exacerbated the city's water shortage. According to Omer Issa Tahir, director of the Red Sea State's Water Corporation, the city faces a daily shortfall of 50,000 cubic meters of water.
"No doubt that the impact of the dam collapse is huge, especially when we are facing a large increase in the number of displaced people, which puts great pressure on all sectors," Tahir told Xinhua.
Since May 2023, Port Sudan, some 800 km east of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, has become the de facto capital, hosting the government, headquarters of international organizations, and diplomatic missions in the country.
Sudan has been gripped by a devastating conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since mid-April 2023, which claimed at least 29,683 lives and displaced over 14 million people, either inside or outside Sudan, according to the latest estimates by international organizations.
