Sudanese police clamp down on water cuts protestors
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August 24, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Water shortages on Wednesday sparked a
new bout of protests in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, where the police
forcibly dispersed the demonstrators and arrested some of them, eye
witnesses told Sudan Tribune.
JPEG - 18.5 kb
Sudanese anti-riot police members march to disperse anti-government
protests in Khartoum in January (FILE)
In the recent past, similar protests have occurred numerously in large
parts of Sudan’s sprawling capital due to lengthy water cuts.
The authorities refrained from their customary violence in reaction to
such protests and attempted to contain them peacefully.
This time, however, anti-riot police used teargas break up hundreds of
demonstrators in Sudan’s twin capital city of Omdurman where some
areas lacked water supply for days.
Eye-witnesses told Sudan Tribune that citizens in the areas of Al-Arda
and Al-Abbasia in Omdurman on Wednesday staged massive demonstrations
against the five-day absence of water in their areas. The protestors
were chanting “we are thirsty in the land of two Niles.”
Subsequently, the police intervened and used teargas to disperse the
protest, arresting 22 individuals in the process. All detainees were
later released, however.
One demonstrator in Al-Arda area narrated to Sudan Tribune the way
they suffer to secure potable water, saying they had to walk long
distances to neighboring areas in order to find waters.
He added that they were motivated to demonstrate in order to draw the
attention of state officials to their ordeal which reached
unprecedented levels.
Ironically, Sudanese authorities recently announced plans to introduce
prepaid water meters in houses of citizens as the country moves
towards privatization of the national water corporation.
Meanwhile, in an effort to justify the water crisis, the water
corporation in Khartoum said it “regrets” the water cuts and
attributed them to the low production of the Mogran water treatment
plant.
The water authority said in a statement published by Sudan Media
Centers (SMC), a website run by the country’s security apparatus, that
work was underway to address the shortages and bring the water supply
back to normalcy.
(ST)
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