Egypt has completed 28 solar-powered groundwater stations providing clean drinking water to more than 84,000 people across South Sudan, a senior irrigation ministry official said. Dr Nader El-Masry, head of the Central Administration for International Cooperation and Agreements at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, said each station serves more than 3,000 people, primarily in rural areas.
The projects form part of Egypt’s efforts to help South Sudan achieve the UN’s sixth Sustainable Development Goal, which seeks to ensure universal access to clean water and sanitation, El-Masry said in a phone interview with Al-Shams 2 television. He stated that the ministry represents the Egyptian government in water cooperation with South Sudan and has implemented several development projects across the country.
These include the first phase of a project to clear floating vegetation and weeds from the 90-kilometre Bahr El-Ghazal waterway. The completed phase covered a 30-kilometre stretch measuring 50 metres in width. “The project received a very positive response at both the popular and official levels in South Sudan,” El-Masry said.
He noted that the project has improved local living and health conditions, helped protect the environment, and strengthened flood-control efforts in the Bahr El-Ghazal region. El-Masry said Egypt has constructed two rainwater-harvesting dams in Warrap State, at Tonj and Gogrial, in 2025 with a storage capacity of 30,000 cubic metres each.
The dams collect rainfall during the wet season for drinking, household use, and livestock during dry periods. Egypt's water cooperation with South Sudan operates under a technical and development agreement signed in November 2014 and overseen by a joint technical committee.
Egypt has also built two river piers in Wau and Kuajok to connect communities by water and installed three stations at Nimule, Bor, and Mongalla to measure water levels and flows along the Bahr El-Jebel. The monitoring stations, which are jointly operated by the two countries, include drinking water facilities serving nearby communities.
The programme also covers a water-quality laboratory, hydrological monitoring, flood forecasting and early-warning capabilities, and training for South Sudanese water specialists. The wider Egyptian programme includes the SOMBA groundwater station in Luri Payam, which was inaugurated on Sunday by Egyptian Ambassador to South Sudan Hazem Mamdouh Fouzi and South Sudanese Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation James Mawut Makouac.