Desperate Darfur Sickens Without Clean Water

NEW YORK, New York, September 21, 2004 (ENS) - Two top United Nations human rights officials have arrived in the shattered Darfur region of Sudan to examine how to shield civilians there from further militia attacks. At the same time, the UN World Health Organization issued new guidelines to ensure the safety of drinking water supplies in the Darfur refugee camps. In this arid land on the edge of the Sahara desert, supplying safe water is the greatest challenge to aid workers.

Today in New York, heads of state and government are gathering for the annual opening of the UN General Assembly where the largest humanitarian disaster in the world is certain to be a focus of attention.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam Justice Louise Arbour is one of nine judges on the Supreme Court of Canada. (Photo courtesy Supreme Court of Canada)

The officials have been dispatched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to study the latest developments in Darfur and recommend what should be done to protect the inhabitants there from more attacks by the Janjaweed militias.

The combination of crowded conditions in the settlements, shortage of clean water, inadequate latrines, insufficient soap, and the mire caused by rain-soaked mud mingling with excreta, have combined to make hygiene an impossible goal for people living in small, tarpaulin covered huts, the World Health Organization said last week.

The hundreds of thousands of displaced people now face a new threat. In Darfur and neighboring Chad a hepatitis E outbreak is sweeping through the refugee camps where people huddle under makeshift shelters without clean water or sanitation.

The UN Security Council Saturday voted to consider sanctions that would affect Sudan’s oil sector and the government or its individual members if the government does not do more to protect the civilian population.

Arani Ardja Maniss, 70, waits in line for her family’s food ration in Iridimi camp. (Photo courtesy IFRC)

Expressing "grave concern" that the Sudanese government had not met its obligations to protect civilians in Darfur, the Security Council declared that, if the Sudan fails to ensure security in Darfur, disarm the Janjaweed militia, bring violators to justice, and cooperate with the expansion and extension of the African Union monitoring presence in Darfur, sanctions would be considered.

The Council requested the Secretary-General to rapidly establish an international commission of inquiry, which would immediately investigate reports of human rights violations in Darfur, and determine whether acts of genocide had occurred there.

Annan said it is the first time in the Council’s history that it has been required to take action under the UN Charter to prevent and suppress acts of genocide.

U.S. President George W. Bush sent a message to the Security Council Saturday saying, "Darfur is a catastrophe the council should address on an urgent basis," U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said.

U.S. Ambassor to the United Nations John Danforth addresses the media at UN Headquarters. (Photo courtesy UN)

The disaster in Darfur is "entirely man-made," Danforth said. "Unlike natural disasters such as hurricanes and droughts, the tragedy in Darfur was entirely avoidable. It was fabricated by a government as an overreaction to a rebellion; a government intent on revenge, intent on persecution, intent on breaking the spirit of an entire people," he said.

A new mortality survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Sudan's Ministry of Health shows that displaced people in North and West Darfur are dying at between three and six times the expected rate for a humanitarian emergency.

At least 1.2 million people in Darfur region have fled their villages and are camped in 129 settlements across an area the size of France.

The "crude mortality rate" that is usually used to define a humanitarian crisis is one death per 10,000 people per day. The WHO survey found the crude mortality rate between June 15 and August 15 to be 1.5 deaths per 10,000 people per day in North Darfur, and 2.9 in West Darfur.

"This survey confirms what the humanitarian community has suspected for some weeks," said WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook. "Thousands, including thousands of children under five, are dying every month from diseases which can be easily prevented and treated. Increased and better focused action is now vital."

Chad Red Cross volunteers distribute food and truck water to the most remote camps. With support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent and national societies, water and sanitation and medical facilities are being developed. (Photo by Olav Saltbones courtesy Norwegian Red Cross/IFRC)

Some households reported deaths due to violence - particularly among men in the age group 15-49 years. Injuries and violence were linked to 15 percent of total deaths.

WHO points to the need to improve health referral services in Darfur, so that people who are injured can be treated with adequate supplies and expertise in health clinics and hospitals.

New recommendations released today by WHO aim to ensure the safety of drinking water supplies - everything from what is piped into homes to the rural wells provided to refugee camps in an emergency.

“This is an extremely important change in orientation from a public health point of view,” Dr. Kerstin Leitner, WHO assistant director-general for sustainable development and healthy environments. “The revised guidelines will allow public health management to focus on prevention of microbial and chemical contamination of water supplies.”

Past drinking water regulations have emphasized testing water samples for levels of chemical and biological contaminants. Relying on this approach, WHO said, means that problems are detected long after water is consumed.

The new recommended approach for regulators and operators is to manage drinking water quality in a holistic, systematic fashion from source to tap - by ensuring water reservoirs, or, local wells are not at risk of contamination from human and animal waste, to checking basics like the regular changing of water filters.

In the past several months since the government of Sudan eased visa and access restrictions, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and the government of Sudan have speeded the delivery of relief assistance.

Ten-year-old Nadifa Isadurgi drinks clean water pumped from a source within Touloum camp. (Photo by Olav Saltbones courtesy Norwegian Red Cross/IFRC)

An early warning system is detecting and reporting early stages of disease outbreaks which are being contained through widespread measles and polio immunization, cholera prevention and malaria control. All these factors help to keep death rates down.

The survey team collected data by speaking directly to displaced people in 1,500 households in each of North and West Darfur. Questions covered household members who had died, the major causes of death, and the availability of basic services. Questions also covered the availability of water and sanitation, non-food items, food rations and access to medication.

The survey was also started in South Darfur, but the team had to suspend work after a holdup and robbery just outside Nyala, capital of South Darfur, at the beginning of September.

Data from Kalma camp near Nyala indicate high death rates and underscore the urgent need to complete data collection in the South.

Dr. Hussein Gezairy, regional director of WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region said, "The humanitarian community has already done much to reduce death and promote survival. The extra efforts, needed now, include increased water and sanitation in the camps, accessible primary health care, security for displaced people and humanitarian workers, improved camp management and the assurance of adequate financial resources for many months to come."

"It distresses me to hear that the level of funding for the international response in Darfur is still only half of what is needed," Dr. Gezairy said. "This shortfall is measured in lives lost."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell explained to Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 9 how the violent situation in Darfur originated.

"The violence in Darfur has complex roots in traditional conflicts between Arab nomadic herders and African farmers," he said. The violence intensified during 2003 when two groups - the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement - declared open rebellion against the government of Sudan because they feared being on the outside of the power and wealth sharing agreements that were being arranged in the north-south negotiations."

Refugee children carry water in a camp in eastern Chad. (Photo by Olav Saltbones courtesy Norwegian Red Cross)

A recent survey taken by the U.S. State Department officials interviewed 1,136 randomly selected refugees in 19 locations in eastern Chad. Sixty one percent had witnessed the killing of a family member. Four fifths had witnessed the destruction of their homes.

Over and over again, said Ambassador Danforth, interviewers heard the same story.

"Government aircraft start the attacks by bombing villages; government soldiers arrive in trucks followed by Jingaweit on horseback. They surround and then enter the villages - guns blazing; they shoot and bomb fleeing villagers; they loot and destroy the villages, often shouting racial epithets and curses as they proceed with their acts of destruction. They leave behind them nothing but devastation and death. And, importantly, nine in 10 of the refugees said they had witnessed no rebel activity in the areas so mercilessly attacked by the government and the Jinjaweed. These are indiscriminate acts of violence and terror."

Secretary of State Powell told the Congressional hearing that this evidence leads the United States to conclude that the government of Sudan may be condoning and perpetrating genocide.

But, said Powell, applying the word genocide to the events in Darfur does not guarantee the victims will receive the help they need.

"Some seem to have been waiting for this determination of genocide to take action," Powell said. "In fact, however, no new action is dictated by this determination."

"Call it civil war; call it ethnic cleansing; call it genocide; call it "none of the above," said Powell. "The reality is the same. There are people in Darfur who desperately need the help of the international community."