For decades, villages and communities across Darfur relied on rainwater for drinking and cooking, collecting seasonal runoff in ponds and natural channels. But before the outbreak of the April 15 war, efforts to drill boreholes and install water stations had expanded significantly, reaching the stage of laying water pipelines to some neighbourhoods, particularly in Nyala and parts of its localities.
At the time, water remained relatively accessible despite seasonal price increases during the summer when some wells went out of service. The situation was, however, far less severe than the acute shortages families across Darfur are facing today.
The services provided by South Darfur State’s Water Corporation have declined in supplying residents of Nyala with drinking water.
According to information obtained by Atar, the authority currently serves only parts of southern Nyala, including Korea, Al-Hara Al-Oula and Texas neighbourhoods, through its sole functioning submersible pump located in Korea.
Aziza Hussein, a resident of Khartoum Bilail neighbourhood in northern Nyala, told Atar that households there depend on water tankers bringing water from Doumaya, about two kilometres outside the city, but said the water is saline.
Aziza added that families in the southern part of the city receive water through tanker trucks supplied from the Water Corporation’s submersible pump.
Meanwhile, a member of the South Nyala Emergency Room, who requested anonymity, said they had implemented water distribution projects in recent months to confront the growing crisis. The emergency room member attributed the worsening thirst crisis in Nyala to the water corporation’s declining role.
“In April, a barrel of water cost 3,000 SDG. By May, the price had risen to 4,500 SDG, and now it has reached 6,000 SDG,” he said.
The price of a water tanker in Kalma camp has reached 7,000 SDG.
“We collect water from wells in the gardens of Wadi Barli, south of the camp, because the water stations and pipeline network have stopped operating,” Hassan Mohamed, a displaced resident of Kalma camp, told Atar.
Hassan attributed the shutdown of water stations in the camp to the fuel crisis. He also reported that several facilities had been looted, particularly stations powered by solar energy, while five additional water stations broke down after oil was used as a substitute for fuel.
Hassan called for prioritizing the protection of water sources through chlorination and repairing nonfunctional facilities.
The Alight organization had been responsible for installing and maintaining water stations in the camp, but its operations ceased in January.
At the beginning of April, the civil administration affiliated with the Tasis government issued a statement announcing that South Darfur’s water corporation had signed a memorandum of understanding with UNICEF to drill 12 solar-powered wells at a cost of $800,000.
According to the statement, excavation and installation works were scheduled to begin by the end of April.
In North Darfur
Unable to access or transport water, we are forced to drink from contaminated wells.
Al-Numan Salman, displaced resident from Al-Fasher, North Darfur
The situation is much the same in Mellit locality, which hosts large numbers of displaced people from North Darfur state, particularly from Al-Fasher, where the severe shortage of drinking water has compounded the hardship facing both residents and displaced communities.
“People are struggling even to secure two liters of water a day,” Jabara Awadallah, a resident of the eastern neighbourhood of Mellit, said.
Awadallah explained that the town depends on two sources of drinking water: groundwater wells, which suffer from significant contamination, and surface sources such as seasonal ponds in valleys and streambeds, which are nearing depletion under mounting pressure from the influx of displaced people.
Awadallah proposed a solution to the crisis by expanding groundwater drilling, installing manual pumps at operational wells that currently rely on manual extraction, and supplying water storage tools such as water skins and barrels inside residential neighbourhoods and, more urgently, in displacement camps, which he said are facing extremely dire conditions with the onset of summer.
In Furuk area of Kutum locality, three of four water pumps that had been supplying drinking water to residents and displaced communities stopped operating during February and March, according to information obtained by Atar. The breakdown has caused severe hardship, particularly because the population depends on these pumps to secure drinking water for both people and livestock.
Local sources told Atar that the stations broke down and residents were unable to obtain spare parts due to their absence from local markets and the high cost of sourcing them from Chad and Libya.
Musa Al-Dukhri, a resident of Farouk, told Atar that thousands of families depend almost entirely on these pumps. He added that their shutdown had created an acute shortage of safe drinking water.
“We spend our days searching for water in neighbouring areas and traveling long distances. Sometimes we leave at six in the morning and do not return home until six in the evening. Some of us are forced to drink part of the water we collect during the journey itself because we have no means of transport other than pack animals, which cannot carry large quantities,” he said.
Furuk Emergency Room said in a statement reviewed by Atar that the breakdown of the pumps had led to a complete halt in water supplies across several areas, forcing residents and displaced communities to rely on unsafe water sources and increasing the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks.
The emergency room also revealed worsening conditions for displaced people fleeing the devastation of fighting in different parts of North Darfur state, particularly from Al-Fasher following its capture by the Rapid Support Forces.
“We are struggling to access water, and we have no means to transport it from distant areas. So we are forced to drink from contaminated wells that people abandoned long ago. They need disinfection, and the water’s colour and taste keep changing,” Al-Numan Salman, who was displaced from Al-Fasher, told Atar.
Salah al-Din Suleiman Ibrahim, popularly known as “John,” the media officer for the Furuk Emergency Room, told Atar that residents are facing severe hardship, especially with rising temperatures and increasing demand for water.
John said residents and displaced people are compelled to travel 30 kilometres each day to the neighbouring areas of Tari and Mutrag to collect water. He noted that their movement places additional pressure on communities there, which are also experiencing water shortages, and that existing wells are insufficient to meet local demand.
He added that the area currently hosts 512 displaced families from Disa, Mazza and Mulaqat, in addition to 1,448 families from Al-Fasher and Kutum, all of whom are enduring difficult conditions because of the water crisis.
John said the area’s 26,802 residents have been forced to ration water among themselves every 48 hours, with each household receiving an allocation of six jerrycans.
“That amount is not enough even for small families to drink,” he said, asking: “So what happens to larger households?”
John also revealed that livestock herds have been affected by the water shortage. He explained that two artesian wells in the area had previously been reserved for animals because their saline water was unsuitable for human consumption.
But after the pumps stopped operating, residents were forced to turn to those wells and manually extract water for drinking, reducing their efficiency.
He added that livestock owners had abandoned the area and moved to neighbouring locations in search of water.
“There is now an urgent need for immediate intervention to repair the broken pumps and provide alternative water sources, including solar power units and batteries to enable water extraction through mechanized pumps instead of manual ones,” he said.
Al-Khair Jammeh, a resident of Mulaqat area located about 100 kilometres west of Kutum, said the area is witnessing severe overcrowding at the few remaining operational water points.
He said the village has three pumps, one of which stopped functioning because of fuel shortages. The price of a gallon of diesel has got to 170,000 SDG, while the remaining two pumps operate manually, limiting their output and leaving them unable to meet growing demand following the shutdown of most pumps in neighbouring areas due to either technical failures or fuel scarcity.
East Darfur
We understand the country’s situation, but the authorities also need to recognize our reality and the suffering we endure to obtain drinking water. Water is our lifeline.
Saadan Abdullah, displaced resident in Ad-Deain, East Darfur
Residents of Ad-Deain in East Darfur state are also facing an acute drinking water crisis.
Mohamed Suleiman, popularly known as Patrick, who lives in the Railway East neighbourhood, said water stations have stopped producing water because of repeated breakdowns caused by mounting pressure on the system.
He explained that summer brings back many residents who had been working in farms and agricultural fields outside the city, in addition to large numbers of displaced people and refugees from South Sudan, creating severe congestion at water stations.
Patrick also revealed increases in drinking water tariffs across the city, with the price rising from 1,200 SDG per barrel to 2,000 SDG before being reduced to 1,600 following public protests.
He, however, said the charges do not correspond to any actual service, particularly because the authority continues collecting fees for stations powered by solar units that had originally been installed free of charge by local and regional organizations.
Patrick noted that several of the solar-powered stations have ceased operating due to a lack of spare parts for repairs, while others have been rendered inoperable after parts were looted.
“We want nothing more than access to drinking water, but there are problems with fuel, oil and spare parts. We went with local residents to the city’s drinking water authority, and they told us that the tariff imposed on each barrel of water does not cover operating costs or even workers’ wages. The price was increased, yet there is still no dependable water supply,” Saadan Abdullah, who was displaced from Al-Fasher and now lives in Ad-Deain, told Atar,adding:
“We understand the country’s situation and the complexity of the circumstances, but the authorities also need to recognize our reality and the suffering we endure to obtain drinking water. Water is our lifeline.”
A senior source at East Darfur state’s Drinking Water Authority said the fuel crisis has cast a long shadow over the water sector across the state, to the point that some residents in villages and rural settlements have resorted to operating water pumps with cooking oil after heating and mixing it with residual fuel, a practice that damages engines within a short period.
The price of a gallon of diesel in East Darfur currently ranges between 90,000 and 100,000 SDG. Fuel is smuggled into the state from Libya and had been widely used to operate water pumps even before the war.
“After the war, electricity supplies collapsed for the same reasons behind the water crisis, fuel shortages and the lack of spare parts needed for routine maintenance of power stations,” the source said.
The source noted that 30 per cent of water stations in urban areas operate on electricity, while 60 per cent are located in villages and rely on diesel-powered generators. Another 10 per cent run on solar power units, which are also facing challenges including poor maintenance and misuse, drone strikes, and wind damage that has uprooted large parts of the systems because of the region’s exposed desert terrain.
In Umm Dafoug: Bathing in Dust
Children bathe in dust, women carry empty jars, and men search for a single drop of water.
Resident of Umm Dafoug, South Darfur
In Umm Dafoug locality in South Darfur state, the arrival of summer each year brings an intensification of the drinking water crisis. Residents are forced to travel long distances to secure water or purchase it at prohibitively high prices.
The heaviest burden falls on women and children, who spend long hours searching for water, depriving them of opportunities for education and work.
“Children bathe in dust, women carry empty jars, and men search for a single drop of water,” a resident of Umm Dafoug told Atar, describing their reality.
He also revealed that large numbers of livestock have died from thirst.
“People say human consumption comes first,” he said. “If rain does not fall in the coming weeks, more livestock will die of thirst.”
He also pointed to the complete absence of authorities, saying residents had been left to face their fate alone.
He warned that tensions could emerge among communities because of soaring demand for water and that displaced people would face increasingly difficult conditions if the crisis persists.
In Idd al-Fursan locality, neighbouring Nyala locality, residents told Atar that the Fakarin area is suffering from a severe drinking water crisis, with the price of a barrel of water exceeding 15,000 SDG.
Hamdan Ibrahim Abdullah told Atar that residents travel nearly 25 kilometres to reach the nearest source of safe drinking water.
He added that the price of a single barrel of water has now risen to more than 18,000 SDG.
Central Darfur
Water sources in Nierteti are extremely limited relative to the size of the population.
Adam Jemi, a member of the Nierteti Emergency Room, Central Darfur
In Central Darfur state, displaced people arriving from Al-Fasher and Shangil Tobaya to Kankoli camp, located southeast of the Liba area in Jebel Marra, are facing rapidly worsening humanitarian conditions driven by an acute drinking water crisis.
According to field reports from the camp’s Emergency Room, the site currently hosts around 7,939 families, an estimated 47,634 displaced people, living under severe humanitarian conditions amid a critical shortage of basic services, chief among them access to water.
The camp’s Emergency Room said displaced families face daily challenges in securing safe water for drinking and household use, particularly as the number of arrivals to the camp has continued to rise in recent months.
Emergency committees and camp residents called on local and international actors to intervene urgently through humanitarian organizations to provide sustainable water sources and deliver emergency assistance to ease the suffering of thousands of displaced people in the camp.
UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) are responsible for supporting water services across areas of eastern Jebel Marra, while youth-led initiatives and emergency committees serve as coordinating channels to help ensure water reaches surrounding villages.
In Nierteti, the price of a barrel of water has reached 10,000 SDG.
“We rely on manual pumps and wells for drinking water. As for transportation, water is carried by tanker carts and tuk-tuks,” Adam Jemi, a member of the Nierteti Emergency Room, said.
Jemi added that water sources in Nierteti are extremely limited relative to the size of the population, and that, in recent months, many sources have ceased operating because of technical breakdowns, while others provide water that is unfit for use.
Broken Water Sources and Dried Wells
In Safia Umm Qad and Towal adminsteration units, both under Al-Salam locality (Ab Ajura) in South Darfur, families are facing a severe thirst crisis due to the distance and breakdown of water sources as well as the drying up of wells.
“We drink from manually dug wells and use animal carts to transport water. In Safia, we have eight water sources, all of them unprotected open wells. Five have broken down, and no authority inspects or maintains them. One water station had its equipment looted, solar panels, batteries and pumping machines, back in 2018, leaving only two functioning water sources. The price of a barrel of water has now reached 7,000 SDG,” Mohamed Abbas, a youth coordinator in Al-Safia unit, said.
In the Towal unit, which includes four villages of Jonga, Umm Shotor, Umm Balal and Hilla Jabal, Adam Mustafa, a resident of Umm Balal village, said residents rely on wells in Umm Shotor, located about 17 kilometres away. Residents of Umm Balal depend on wells nearly five kilometres away, while those in Towal are slightly better off as they have a diesel pump, though it suffers frequent breakdowns and was last repaired through volunteer efforts by local youth.
Adam added that during the rainy season, families drink water from seasonal valleys and streambeds while storing well water for the summer months. As a result, wells remain closed throughout the rainy season, reopening in November and supplying water until February.
By March, wells run dry until the onset of the rainy season in July, leaving families to face a severe and prolonged water crisis.
A single well produces between five and seven jerrycans per hour. Livestock herders also draw water from the same wells used by residents.
To avoid conflict, nighttime hours are allocated to herders, while mornings are reserved for local residents.
