The Need

Water. A Basic Need. A Human Right.

Clean water remains out of reach for millions of people in South Sudan. In remote and rural communities, families are forced to rely on unsafe water sources contaminated with bacteria and disease, putting their health and lives at constant risk. Women and children often walk miles each day to collect dirty water. This is time that should be spent in school, earning income, or caring for their families.

The water crisis in South Sudan is not just about access; it is a daily struggle for survival.

Dirty water claims lives in remote villages of South Sudan.

In many rural communities, access to clean, safe drinking water is extremely limited, forcing families to rely on contaminated surface water from ponds, rivers, and seasonal pools. These unsafe water sources often carry bacteria and parasites that cause life-threatening waterborne diseases, particularly among children and the elderly. Without reliable access to clean water, preventable illnesses remain a daily reality across South Sudan.

South Sudan’s environment is starkly beautiful but harsh. The country experiences just two seasons—one intensely wet and the other long and dry—with temperatures frequently rising above 120°F. During the rainy season, water appears plentiful for villagers, their crops, and livestock. However, most available water remains unsafe for drinking.

When the annual six-month dry season begins, surface water dries up, and families are left walking miles in search of any water source they can find, regardless of quality.

This seasonal water scarcity deepens the clean water crisis and places already vulnerable communities at even greater risk.

Walking Miles Each Day for Water

The dry season forces millions of South Sudanese each year to leave their village homes in search of water. Some have to abandon their homes and move altogether while others, usually women and children, are forced to trek miles every day to collect water from ponds, marshes, ditches, or hand-dug wells, where the water is often contaminated with disease-causing parasites and bacteria. The results are pain, sickness—even death—especially among infants and children.

  • Young woman outdoors balancing an orange container on her head, wearing a colorful patterned dress and a red headscarf, with trees and dry grass in the background.
  • Child carrying a jar on his head in a dry, open landscape with sparse trees.
  • Three women walking in a dry, agricultural field carrying orange jerry cans on their heads, with sheep and a small village visible in the background.
  • A smiling young boy with dark skin and missing a front tooth, wearing a colorful shirt and beaded necklace, balancing a large wooden container on his head in a rural village with traditional huts and sparse trees in the background.
  • A young boy with dark skin and short hair is drinking from a plastic bottle filled with yellowish liquid in an outdoor setting. He is wearing a light-colored, striped shirt and is standing near a vehicle, with a dry landscape and sparse trees in the background.
  • A woman with dark skin and short hair, wearing a colorful floral dress and a beaded necklace, balances a large, round, rust-colored clay pot on her head in a rural area with dry, sparse bushes and trees in the background.
  • Two young children near a large dug hole filled with water, with one girl standing and a younger boy sitting nearby, in an outdoor setting with soil and green shrubbery.

Water, however tainted, is needed to live.

Villagers must relocate during the dry season to be near water sources. Only with the arrival of the next wet season can people return to their homes. This annual hunt for water prevents villages from building stable, basic infrastructure such as schools, markets, and medical clinics. Even when villages are able to build clinics or schools, the buildings can remain empty for up to six months year because the dry season forces villagers to find water.

Add water and life blossoms.

Hope for a better life springs from a well. Children are healthier and can go to school, expanding their dreams and the possibility to fulfill them. Women don’t spend their days trekking long distances for water. Instead, they can spend their time growing food, making more nutritious meals for their families, and participating in the small businesses that pop up at markets. Clinics can be built and sustained when there is a well nearby.