Report – an International Conference on Darfur Water to Achieve Peace and Stability

Sudan News Agency (Khartoum)

Ishrga Abaas

24 May 2011

Khartoum — The government of Sudan together with The African Union and the UN active missions in the country have launched a joint initiative to obtain one billion USD, within the first international effort to establish a modern and sustainable water system to provide services to all the societies in Darfour.

Where the long years of conflicts and effects of climate change have made water a rare and expensive comodity and a main cause of conflicts between the people of Darfur people. This initiative will be launched within the context of ( Darfour International conference on water for a sustainable peace), to be held in the last week of next July.

The conference aimed at making a plan that contributes in achieving peace and conciliation through modernization and fair utilization of the natural resources in Dar-four. A number of working papers will be presented in the conference with the participation of more than 200 experts in the field of usage and distribution of water, in addition to senior experts and specialists in development and the donors, representing governments, famous personalities in the UN, multi-nationalities Funds, monetary funds, the regional agencies and international volunteer agencies.

The participants in the conference will discuss equipments and methods to define the the challenges facing the sector of water and how to attract the required financial resources. Uz. Osman Yousif, a member of the Technical bureau of the water resources at the ministry of irrigation and Water Resources confirmed in a statement to SUNA that the conference initiative doesnt only concern the rehabilitation and expansion of the basic infra structures of water, but also to achieve a full integration between the administrations of water resources and water services to meet the needs of the affected people and review issues related to their daily life and living conditions, in addition to methods of conserving the environment.

It is to mention that the three states in Darfur region, which are the North, South and western Darfur states are located in an area estimated at 500.000 square Km., at the edge of the Great-Desert. The scarcity of water resources in the rural regions, in which more than half the people live, means that the average per capita consumption of water is less than 9 liters per day.

These quantities are for drinking, washing and all the other purposes. While people in the urban areas are a little bit better, because their percapita usgae is (24,7 Litters per/day) but still less than half the average of consumption per person at the level of the other Sudanese states. This critical position to gain water was one of the main reasons of eruption of conflict in Darfur, particularly in the of Nomads areas, as a result an increased numbers of people displaced from the rural areas to the suburban and urban areas which caused additional pressures on the limited number of water resources and infrastructures in the cities and participated in reducing and running out of these sources.

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