Juba’s population panics over rumours of water poisoning Article Comments (11) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 23, 2011 (JUBA) – The urban population in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, panicked on Thursday after rumours that the river, which supplies the population in the city with water, had been poisoned by the North Sudan government just days ahead of the region’s independence. Some residents in Juba bathe in the river Nile (photo Demotix) Most of Juba city’s population is still dependent on the water in the River Nile for drinks and other activities. Clean water supply by government through pipelines is only limited to a small portion of the town’s population, particularly to the government headquarters and residents of senior government officials. Hundreds of tanker trucks always roam the town from all day and in the evening carrying and selling water fetched from the River Nile to most of the town’s dwellers that have no access to clean drinking water. On Thursday morning news spread like a wild fire through mobile phones that the River Nile has been poisoned by suspected agents from North Sudan government. “I was not aware about what was happening,” said one Ethiopian business man, Tesfaye, who sells river water to residents. “I was driving with water in my truck but no body wanted to buy, then later on after two hours of driving around in vain a friend of mine informed me of the news that water customers have heard rumours that the river has been poisoned.” The situation sent a lot of anxiety among the population who were at the same time suffering from the water shortage as the river was the only source of water. Water business from the river almost came to a stand still when trucks ferrying water could rarely be seen in some quarters of the town. “I don’t know what to do, I have been depending on river water since I don’t have access to clean water coming from the government,” said a lady, adding that she was entangled between lack of clean water and now the poisoned river water. However, the General Manager of the South Sudan’s Urban Water Corporation, Chamjok Chol Wectuor, refuted the allegations as baseless rumors. Speaking to the press on Thursday, Wectuor explained to the public that as soon he heard about the spreading rumours during the day he and his team immediately went to the River Nile and conducted several tests at the river. He said water tests were conducted at different locations along the river and the results were normal with no any sign of poisoning in the water. Officials say the panic was triggered when some fishermen along the Nile detected a number of dead floating fish flowing from south of Juba towards the north as the dead fish were carried by the current of the River Nile. The fishermen then alerted the population about their finding. The head of the Urban Water Corporation, Wectuor, called on the population to maintain calm, assuring that the water has not been poisoned. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
