The chairman of the displaced people in a camp in Mangateen in Juba says they have been drinking directly from a swamp for four months now due to lack of clean water.

Gabriel Awol says there are more than 30,000 IDPs from Upper Nile State in this camp.

He told Eye Radio that the people are fetching water from a nearby swamp.

“Those who are responsible for us are the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and when we came, the president directed his advisor, Tut Keaw. He used to bring food and water to us but these days they stopped supplying us, we don’t know [why]”, Awol said.

“This could be the prices of goods in market, because the food ration has been reduced,” he said.
Because “the water has stopped coming now,” Wold said they started “drinking water from a swamp that is adjacent to the airport.”

“We don’t have clean water anymore. The water stopped coming for the last four months from September last year, we now dying of thirst,” he said.

A nurse at a clinic in the camp has confirmed the lack of clean drinking water at the camp.

Anna Clement said lack of proper sanitation at the camp is another challenge

“What is facing us is lack of clean water, we don’t have toilets, and for example the children are defecating in an open air,” she told Eye Radio.

“There are no treatments especially for the expectant mothers who may deliver at night. So we want assistances from well-wishers,” she said.

The camp was established in mid-2015 for Internally Displaced People from Upper Nile State.

The government is yet to comment on the situation of the IDPs.