UN-Habitat in partnership with the Government of South Sudan and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have embarked on a journey to make the residents of South Sudan’s dream of improved health come true,  through access to sanitation facilities, access to safe and clean water. 

Improving access to basic services is a key objective of the Government of South Sudan and UN-Habitat is working with the state and county governments to extend access to safe drinking water, using an innovative quick impact approach.   Turalei in Warrap State and Yirol in Lakes State are the first beneficiaries of the initial implementation of the Quick Impact Water Project which aims to provide access to water while building local capacity to manage the systems. Over 16 communal water points and the related infrastructure have already been installed in Yirol and Turelei. For better implementation and delivery of the project UN-Habitat has assisted the beneficiary states and towns through workshops to come up with two project management structures, the Project Implementation Units and the Multi stake Holder Forums. These structures are responsible for project implementation oversight and governance of water and sanitation provision at various levels. 

South Sudan continues to experience serious problems of waterborne diseases. In order to ensure that improved access to safe drinking water is accompanied by improved standards of sanitation and hygiene, UN-Habitat is working towards promoting behaviour change that will directly impact on reducing transmission of diarrheal diseases. Hygiene and sanitation awareness workshops have been carried out with the aim to equip the participants with skills of hygiene promotion and awareness using the participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation approach and the participatory tools that can assist the community promote the desired behaviour. Participants included County and sub county public health officers, opinion leaders, Multi stake Forum members, Project Implementation Units members working directly in the towns, community based organization members, Water supply officers and Representatives of Water user groups.

UN-Habitat in partnership with the Government of South Sudan and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan looks forward to further delivering the water and sanitation implementation in another six towns: Magwi, Kapoeta, Ezo, Maper, Mayom and Gok Machar where the field appraisal missions were carried out.