South Sudan  >  Our action · Humanitarian situation

Our humanitarian action

Water and sanitation

• Emergency kala azar response:

Kala azar, is the second largest parasitic killer in the world (after malaria). It is transmitted by the bite of a sandfly,causing symptoms such as fever, diarrhea or anemia. If not treated quickly, it is almost always fatal.

The current outbreak of the disease in South Sudan is the worst for 8 years: more than 300 deaths were recorded in November 2010, and 8,324 patients were affected by this deadly disease.
Doctors without Borders (Holland), who are providing a medical response to this epidemic, asked SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL for emergency assistance in terms of water, sanitation and hygiene in 4 health centers inUpper Nile State and Jonglei State.
Patients also attend hygiene promotion sessions to improve their basic practices such as handwashing, use of latrines and water management, to avoid the spread of the disease.
SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL will improve access to safe drinking water for 5,875 people, both for patients coming in for treatment, but also for their care givers, since treatment requires hospitalization and injections for a period ranging from 17 to 30 days.

• SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL improve wash cluster coordination in Unity State, reinforcing existing mechanisms and working with others cluster partners to develop new mechanisms for coordination.
  
  

• Provision of water pipelines - Mayom, Unity State

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL provides support for rural water and sanitation projects in Mayom County since April 2010 including: hand pump repair activities and technician training, water point committee trainings, new borehole construction, hygiene promotion and wash emergency response through Emergency Preparedness & Response(EP&R), coverage working on existing water supply systems with a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to support potential influxes of displaced persons and returnees in the area.

• Water Sanitation and Hygiene promotion for vulnerable and conflict-affected populations - Unity State

Returnees began to arrive in Northern Unity, in anticipation of the referendum in January 2011, increasing the strain on existing facilities such as hand pumps and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL is working to reduce mortality through the provision of sustainable access to safe water in vulnerable communities hosting displace persons and/or returnees, while developing community capacity to prevent water borne diseases through improved hygiene. (water yard rehabilitation, handpumps rehabilitation, water point management committees, water quality monitoring, emergency water supply, community hygiene promotion, emergency latrines construction)

• Preparation and management of  Malakal returnee transit station - Malakal Town

When Malakal town began to be a transit point for returnees, SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL intervened first at way station in December 2010, and launched a series of emergency water and sanitation interventions.
However none of these were designed to be sustainable, so to reduce the risk of exposure to water borne diseases on more a long term basis, our team has commenced the rehabilitation of existing water storage and distribution system, construction of 12 water points, water trucking, construction of emergency latrines, hand washing sites and shower cubicles, and maintenance of all sanitation facilities and training of 10 community hygiene promoters.

• Reducing mortality among highly vulnerable populations through integrated assistance including relief items and access to basic services and protection - Mayom County

Installation of 10 new water points in Mayom County, formation or reinforcement of committees to manage water points, training of Payam level technicians in basic maintenance, rain water harvesting system.

• Provide sustainable access to clean water  and develop community capacity to prevent water borne diseases while rendering viable emergency preparedness and response:

Training of 20 community Hygiene Promoters, hygiene promotion sessions, distribution of soaps, survey of the populationbefore and after the Intervention, situation monitoring, emergency water supply and sanitation, hygiene awareness and promotion.

Update : may 2011