Clean Water, to Nyabon is a gift born of Love

Nyabon Kangoi, 42, holds her two-year-old son Kalid close as she remembers the months she never wants to relive. In Owach Boma, a small community tucked deep in Panyikang County, the floods didn't just take farmland and footpaths they took away something far more basic, safe water to drink.

For four months, Nyabon and her neighbors had no choice but to draw water straight from the floodwaters around them the same water they cooked with, bathed in, and gave to their children.

“It takes a difficult decision for a mother to give her children unsafe water to drink,” Nyabon says quietly. But when the flood cuts off every other option, there is no decision left to make. There is only survival.

Owach Boma's isolation made the crisis worse. Before the floods, reaching the nearest town of Malakal meant a three-hour walk. Now, with the water still rising and falling with the seasons, that walk has become a two-hour canoe journey and even that comes at a cost. To secure a seat on the canoe to Malakal, Nyabon must pay 10,000 South Sudanese Pounds (SSP), money that is never easy to find.

For a community already stretched thin, hauling clean water from that far away, that often, and at that price, was never truly possible. So, the flood became the well. And every glass of water carried a quiet risk that no mother should have to accept.

with support from the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SSHF), World Vision is delivering emergency WASH services to over 50,000 people affected by floods and conflict across Panyikang County.

When World Vision reached Owach Boma, it didn't just deliver water. It delivered relief from an impossible choice. 

“World Vision bringing us clean and safe water is a show of love,” Nyabon says. “We appreciate it otherwise we would be drinking the flood water.”

Now, Nyabon's family drinks clean and safe water she doesn't have to worry about. 
For her, this is about far more than quenching thirst. 

“Water is the center of every family,” she reflects. “Clean water even makes it far more worth it. We use it for everything.”

Story and photos by Scovia Charles, Communications Officer/World Vision South Sudan