WASH news Africa

For years, Lole Laila Lole, chairperson of an association for people living with HIV/AIDS in southern Sudan, had to drink, cook with, and bathe in the dirty, contaminated water he fetched from the River Nile. “There was no other way,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Due to their weakened immune systems, people living with HIV are particularly susceptible to infections and diseases that can be present in untreated water. But after testing positive [in Khartoum], Lole was forced to return to the virtually non-existent water system of Juba, the southern capital, which had been at war for close to two decades.

The conflict ended in 2005, but government leaders in the south say they lack adequate resources to redevelop the war-ravaged region and deliver services such as providing safe water.

Since the end of the war, treatment tablets have become available in the shops, and HIV-positive people who can afford them are now able to protect themselves from the outbreaks of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.

This year, Population Services International (PSI), with funding from the US Centres for Disease Control, began including water treatment tablets [Water Guard] in the basic care packets they distribute to people with HIV every three months. The decision to include Water Guard in PSI’s care packets was partly in response to pressure from people living with HIV.

Women in Sudan also face very high maternal health risks. The risks are significantly higher for HIV-positive mothers and babies, particularly if they are unable to access safe drinking water.

Read more: IRIN/PlusNews, 12 May 2008