18 February, 2015 - Easing a severe water shortage in Magwi, Eastern Equatoria State, UNMISS today handed over a $60,000 pipe-borne water facility to the town.

The solar-powered water system, expected to serve over 1,500 households, was built with funds from UNMISS’ Quick Impact Projects (QIPS).

“We hope that this new facility will help make life a lot easier for the people, especially women and girls who walk to faraway streams and on unsafe paths to fetch water on a daily basis, ” said UNMISS Eastern Equatoria State Coordinator Hiroko Hirahara.

She added that the project had been prioritized by the community and state government. “So I plead with you to take ownership and manage it properly. We have provided the water, now it is your turn to look after it.”

The facility, which has two water-points with four standing pipes each, will be managed by committees that have been trained to maintain and ensure proper use of the taps.

Alice Akech, chairperson of Lobure, one of the two communities hosting the water-points, said they had asked households to pay five South Sudanese pounds as a monthly fee for the water.

“In my community alone, we have already received subscriptions from about 110 households,” she said. “The community appreciates the project and the people are very cooperative in maintaining it.”

Members of the community had previously walked to a swamp to fetch water, said Ms. Akeck, a pregnant mother of six. “Sometimes, the queue is so long that you have to stay there till late at night. We were scared, it was not safe, but we had to do this every day.”

Magwi County Executive Director Osuru Atana said the UNMISS-funded project would greatly ease the acute water shortage in Magwi town. “We hope other organizations will come in to do similar projects in the other payams of the [Magwi] county.”

The pipe-borne water project was implemented for UNMISS by the UN urban development agency, UN-HABITAT, and the Italian NGO AVSI.