In the midday heat at the UNMISS base in Juba, displaced people go about what has become their normal life for the past two months.

From the far gate at the west end of the compound, people return from an aid distribution point with blankets, buckets and soap. Women start fires to cook and business owners get on with varied commercial activities.

The busiest places are the water collection points. Standing in queues in an area cordoned off with orange barriers to ensure crowd control, people take turns to fetch water at taps.

Water is pumped into the taps from a 70,000-litre tank and two smaller bladders. South Sudan Red Cross volunteers further control the crowd, refusing entry to those with dirty containers and helping older men and women get their water more quickly.

“We fetch water here after standing in a long queue under this sun,” says Mary Nyalorakai, a middle-aged mother of what she called “an extended family” as she waits patiently.

“The water is not enough for everybody and always the water place is crowded,” she adds. “Back in the tent, all the children are sick. Our situation is not good.”

Even before the current crisis, the country faced a huge challenge with less than 23 per cent of people able to access safe drinking water and no access to sanitation facilities for two thirds of the population.

But as UN Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer recently said, ”The humanitarian consequences of the conflict that started in mid-December have “far-outstripped what we thought would be the case.”

“Large-scale displacement to areas without sufficient access to clean water and proper sanitation has greatly increased the vulnerability of people,” humanitarians note in the latest response plan. “Poor sanitary conditions pose a major public health risk, including potential cholera outbreaks.”

The UN mission, agencies and other partners have made efforts to assist the situation. When fighting broke out, UN military battalions from Mongolia and Japan provided thousands of litres of water.

In the Unity State capital Bentiu, the Mongolian battalion continues to fetch and distribute water for people sheltering at the UN base to a tune of about 930 tons per day. In Tomping and UN House bases in Juba, Oxfam, South Sudan Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Nile Hope Development Forum deliver potable water by truck.

“Sometimes we have enough water and sometimes not enough,” says another IDP in Juba, Mary Nyanong. “I cannot blame anybody … We are helpless and we put our problems to God.”

A recent ICRC press release notes that there were still hundreds of thousands not getting enough drinking water, although the organization built water points in six different states and distributed water to prisons and hospitals.

"Security constraints and other limitations on access … make it difficult for people to obtain clean water,” says Marc Suchet, who is in charge of the ICRC's water and habitat activities in South Sudan.

Humanitarian partners plan to target 2.6 million people for water and sanitation over the first six months of the year, including an estimated 1.8 million people internally displaced by the crisis, refugees, returnees, Abyei displaced and vulnerable host communities.

“Meeting this demand will be a significant challenge, requiring heavy planning, increased coordination, and massive scale-up in terms of staff, supplies and logistical support,” they say in their response plan.

For the people, the need for water remains as urgent almost as the return of peace itself.

“…The most important thing in the life of a human being is water,” said Ms. Nyalorakai. “Without water we can’t do anything. Water is used for washing, cooking, bathing and drinking.”