Water tankers filling at the newly-built water-point in Juba. (Photo: Eye Radio).

Some residents of Mauna, a suburb in Juba City, have decried the high-water prices, despite the installation of a water plant worth millions of dollars.

President Kiir launched the Japan-funded water supply project valued at 53 million US dollars in March this year.

Initially, water suppliers refilled their tanks from designated points at 3,000 pounds and resell at 1000 pounds per drum.

But some of the residents told Eye Radio on Monday, the water tank drivers have increased the amount to 1500 pounds per drum.

This is despite the closeness of some water stations to the residential area.

According to the city residents, the water suppliers claim they raised the price due to the depreciation of the pound against the dollar.

They are now calling on the government to intervene and restore the previous price.

“We are poor, and we do not have a thousand five hundred pounds to buy this barrel of water, which means that we will die of thirst,” said one of the residents.

“It is unreasonable for us to buy a barrel of water for this amount, even though the water station is close to our homes. We call on the government to intervene and restore the water price.”

“We accept the increase in commodity prices, not the water price. I do not have this amount to pay to buy water,” said another.

“These drivers fill the water tank, which has a capacity of 25 barrels, for three thousand, and they sell the barrel for 1,000 pounds, but this morning they decided to sell the barrel for 1,500, and they said that the reason for that was the high price of fuel.”

“We live near the water station, a few meters away. I don’t know why they sell water at high prices I gave birth a few days ago. I wish if they sold the water to us for 500 or 700 SSP.”