Water management problems in the Sub-Saharan Rainlands of Rural Eastern Darfur, Sudan

Abstract EN

Water management problems are part of the general environment and development problems in rural areas, and promoting use of water resources has become a serious issue for communities.

This paper investigates water management problems in Umm Kedada, Toisha and Laitgarelnabi localities in eastern Darfur, based on official local governmental statistics and data provided by working nongovernmental organizations.

The main findings give average annual rainfall of 289 mm for the whole area with some geographic differences between south and north parts.

Chi-square values for type of distribution of water stations give 2.5 for Umm Kedada, 0.6 for Toaisha, and 13.1 for Laitgarelnabi depicting uniform distribution in Toaisha, random in Umm Kedada and clustered in Laitgarelnabi.

The total budget of annual water production in the study area is 20,854,253,000 liters.

Water stations produce double the amount produced by surface wells but producing less than those operated by nongovernmental organizations.

Local water authority estimates per capita per day water consumption at 18 liters, while for animals it was estimated on average at 22.5 liters per head per day.

Human population consumes 2% of total water produced while 98% was consumed by animal population.

Comparing the daily recommended level for an individual to remain healthy by World Health Organization with what was daily allocated by local authority, gives a difference as high as 8,579,960 liters or as low as 5,901,760 liters.

This requires tripling or doubling of water production to meet with the higher level of 50 liters, or the lower level of 40 liters recommended by World Health Organization.

Balancing total water production of 20,854,253,000 liters with the estimated annual consumption by local authority for both populations which equals 22,178,860,920 liters gives a deficit of 1,324,607,920 liters annually.

In addition, a rural household in the study area pays thirty times the price of money to buy water compared with any urban household.

Managerial problems of water sector are that, the majority of the water stations were dug in remote areas and face chronic shortage in trained technical staff and financing.

Nongovernmental organizations have successfully contributed to training of administrative committees on management of water stations, follow-up and evaluation of water uses, organizing meetings, decision-making and writing reports.

The author proposes a plan to alleviate water management problems and promote water use in Eastern Darfur State.