Strait closure pushes water prices over the edge in Sudan
El Daein, East Darfur, Sudan — Every day in Sudan’s Darfur region, donkey carts loaded with large water tanks queue at pumping stations to collect a precious cargo that will be sold door-to-door across displacement camps and surrounding communities.
But as global fuel prices surge following conflict in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the cost of those donkey-cart deliveries is rising sharply — pushing water out of reach for hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Sudan’s conflict, says World Vision.
Sudan is heavily reliant on boreholes drilled deep into the country’s aquifers. Diesel generators suck the water into tanks or piping that feeds people and livestock in a parched land, currently in its hot season. When diesel prices rise, so does the price of water, including that delivered by the ubiquitous donkey-drawn water tanks. Since the closure of the Strait and the missile attacks on Iranian and Gulf state refineries, diesel prices have rocketed at points to $17 per gallon (3.7 litres).
The problem is especially critical because Sudan is home to the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than nine million people having fled to other parts of the country, in the wake of the three-year civil conflict.
One state - East Darfur - now hosts over 189,000 people who have arrived with nothing. They live in camps, mostly in and around the state capital, El Daein, placing an enormous burden on the city – population 377,000.
Mohammed Gebril, World Vision’s Water and Sanitation Coordinator in East Darfur, said: “Water prices increased 30 percent after the Strait was shut. This is having a massive impact on people who can barely afford to survive. Hundreds of thousands of displaced families – most of them women and children – are getting almost no international aid and cannot afford to buy water.”
A jerry can (20 litres) of water costs 500 Sudanese Pounds (≈ USD 0.167). Humanitarian standards state that a person in an emergency setting should get 15 litres per day, but many households of eight or nine people are surviving on just one jerry can per day.
Women who live in the camps tell World Vision they can only afford enough water to drink and prepare basic meals. They say they need more solar water pumps because there are too few.
In East Darfur, World Vision has rehabilitated 16 bore wells, and installed piping and solar panels to generate solar power to reduce the reliance on diesel generators. But hundreds of wells are needed to meet the enormous need. International funding cuts mean there is almost nothing available.
Without access to clean water, Mohammed Gebril says people are prone to drink from unsafe water sources, which leads to cholera and typhoid outbreaks. Since 2024, across Sudan there have been over 113,000 cases of cholera, killing over 3,000 people.* Those aged under five face the highest risk of death.
Diesel’s journey into Darfur is long and tortuous. Shipped via the Strait of Hormuz to Kenya, it then finds its way onto trucks which cross South Sudan and then travel via unpaved roads into Sudan.
Sudan itself has plentiful supplies of both oil and water. But the oil refineries are not functioning due to conflict. Sudan has the largest fossil water aquifer in the world, covering about 29% of Sudan – Africa's third largest country – but a massive expansion of bore wells needs peace and infrastructure investment to return to Sudan.
*https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-crisis-situation-analysis-period-090326-150326
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For more information & media, please contact:
James East | World Vision Emergency Communications Director | Email: james_east@wvi.org