Covid-19 Response – Hospital Upgrade
On September 29th, Aqua-Africa broke ground on its 2020 project in Nimule, South Sudan. Like elsewhere in the world, Covid-19 continues to negatively disrupt an already struggling nation. Although the country has been fortunate in terms of avoiding great numbers of fatalities thus far, there is still real fear that the growing infection rate will soon overcome limited health care system response capabilities. In a small but meaningful way, Aqua-Africa is working to support the government’s Covid-19 response efforts by providing more water in Nimule, South Sudan. Nimule is a border town near Uganda. More commercial goods pass through Nimule than anywhere else in South Sudan. Although the border is officially shut down to nonessential personnel, cross border traffic has only slowed marginally. This makes Nimule especially vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19. As one of the only few hospitals in the entire region, Nimule hospital is at the forefront in combating Covid-19. While ill equipped in normal times, Covid-19 threatens to overwhelm the hospital. With no indoor plumbing, doctors and nurses are forced to leave the wards to fetch water from a nearby dispenser, exposing themselves and others to unnecessary interactions and transmission risk. Aqua-Africa is currently upgrading the hospital with indoor plumbing. The Organization is also equipping a high yield well head with a high capacity pump. This will increase the amount of clean water delivered to surrounding communities in Nimule by an additional 25,000 liters a day. Lastly, three additional water distribution points will be constructed to reach more residents in Nimule. Construction is set to be completed by the end of October. In total, Aqua-Africa hopes to provide access to clean water to over 2,500 additional people a day.
