Thirteen counties to benefit from USAID sanitation projects

At least 13 counties in five states are expected to benefit from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Gender-Aware, Sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene projects.

The counties expected to attend are from Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity, Upper Nile, and the Western Equatoria states.

They include Kapoeta North and Budi of EES, Akobo, Duk, Pibor, and Uror counties of Jonglei, Leer, Mayendit, and Panyijar counties of Unity, Baliet and Ulang counties in Upper Nile and Jur River, and Wau counties of Western Bahr-el Ghazal State.

This was announced in a USAID press release earlier Thursday in Juba.

“The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed a five-year contract with DT Global to expand equitable and sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in the 13 counties that are the focus of USAID’s development strategy in South Sudan,” part of the press release reads. 

According to the statement released by USAID, the 13 counties were among the humblest, most isolated, and smallest assisted places in the country.

The statement said that concentrating complex assistance in those counties was a way forward to build resilience among communities.

“USAID seeks to build community and household resilience, so that these communities will be better able to withstand shocks such as floods and conflict, and require less emergency assistance.”  

It added that “Approximately 8.3 million people in South Sudan need humanitarian assistance in 2021, according to estimates from the UN Humanitarian Needs Overview for SouthSudan, up from 7.5 million people in 2020.”

According to the 2019 UNICEF/World Health Organisation Joint Monitoring Program Report, only 11 per cent of South Sudan’s population has access to basic sanitation, and 41 per cent have access to clean drinking water.

The letter explained that inadequate, sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene services, have left communities, particularly women and children, at a heightened risk of water-related diseases.

“Women and children have faced risks of sexual violence when they engage in survival activities such as fetching water.”

It said the new projects will strengthen direction in the areas of water, sanitation, hygiene, and management in the 13 focus counties by fostering leadership.

“Through training and the empowerment of women, providing technical assistance, and engaging the private sector and social enterprises. 

This activity will also expand water, sanitation, and hygiene services in the target counties, with water infrastructure investments in schools and health facilities, incorporating input from women, men, youth, children, and vulnerable groups.

Finally, the activity will increase the adoption of key sanitation and hygiene practices that will improve public health by reducing infections.

Development investments that will improve access to clean water and sanitation services in some of South Sudan’s most underdeveloped communities are essential to build resilience and improve public health, ” USAID/South Sudan Mission Director Haven Cruz-Hubbard said.

“This new activity builds on the successes of USAID’s 2017-2021 Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Response and Prevention of Gender-Based Violence activity implemented by the International Organization for Migration, which built or rehabilitated more than 500 water sources in South Sudan,’’ Cruz-Hubbard said.

 He added that this enabled over “400,000 individuals to have improved access to safe drinking water, increased availability of sanitation facilities, hygiene training, and the establishment of gender-based violence prevention and response services. That activity concluded on September 30, 2021.”

DT Global is an international development contractor with experience in South Sudan (under its previous name of AECOM) implementing USAID conflict mitigation activities.