South Sudan - USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), which this year marks its 50^th anniversary, is helping IOM to provide clean water and sanitation services to 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) sheltering in a UN protection of civilians (PoC) site in Bentiu, South Sudan.

In the eight months of South Sudan’s latest humanitarian crisis, over 1.3 million people have been displaced. Of these, some 95,000 have sought shelter inside over-crowded UN PoC sites throughout the country.

IOM and humanitarian partners, with support from OFDA and other donors, are implementing a multi-sector response to provide water and sanitation services, shelter, health and education in the sites.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are critical in Bentiu, where the lack of clean water has resulted in cases of deadly waterborne diseases.

IOM will construct tap stands, build latrines, create drainage systems and raise community awareness of good hygiene practices and reducing the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

IOM WASH program manager Antonio Torres hopes that the project will make the Bentiu PoC site a safer place for the IDPs.

“The congestion and conditions under which people are living in the site are some of the worst in the country. A strong hygiene and sanitation response is essential if we are to provide adequate protection for these families,” he says.

IOM and its partners are also working on the improvement of drainage in and around the PoC to mitigate the effects of flooding. Heavy rains in July and early August destroyed homes and left standing water throughout the site.

OFDA funding is allowing IOM to keep a permanent WASH team in Bentiu, which can respond immediately to water and sanitation-related crises, including flooding.

For more information please contact

IOM South Sudan’s Program Support Unit
Email: ssudanpsu@iom.int