Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Policy.

This Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Policy is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at (i) ensuring safe, adequate and sustainable domestic water supply (households, work places, education and health facilities and other public institutions including water for fire fighting) in both rural and urban areas; (ii) increasing access to environmental sanitation services to 67% of the population of Sudan in rural and urban areas by the end of 2015; and (iii) ensuring environmental sanitation services and hygienic practices for all rural, urban and nomadic people, including safe wastewater and solid waste management (collection and treatment). Overall goal of the Policy is to contribute in improving the health status and living conditions of the population and the economic growth of the nation. The water supply component includes (a) improved and adequate domestic water supply for human consumption (drinking, personal & household hygiene, cooking and washing) and (b) water for livestock in rural areas.
Water supply services shall be guided be the following principles (i) water as origin of life and fundamental human necessity; (ii) access to safe water is a fundamental human right for human and animals; (iii) the State bears the responsibility in the provision of safe water fairly distributed and users will bear the costs of production, distribution and management of the facilities and shall pay a water tariff; (iv) poor segments of the society shall not be deprived from the services; (v) priority shall be given to vulnerable social groups; (v) in the case of drought and emergency situation, supply of water for drinking shall be given the highest priority; (vi) the polluter, whether individuals or organizations, pays and shall be responsible for all the damage, and for the required cleanup; (vii) private sector involvement in water services; and (viii) environmental conservation.
To make agriculture more porductive and sustainable, the Policy envisages that pastoralist population shall be provided with access to water supply for their livestock.
Rural poverty will be faced through (i) water-supply systems in rural areas designed to enable provision of additional water supplies for use in micro-economic purposes, such as raring domestic livestock and backyard micro-irrigation; (ii) ensuring that access to rural water supply at a public water points shall be not more than 500 meters walking distance from the dwelling; (iii) making available the access to adequate environmental sanitation and hygiene services within the shortest time possible in both rural and nomadic areas; and (iv) conducting the environmental sanitation promotion in the rural areas in a way that environmental sanitation and hygiene benefits are achieved and maintained by the communities.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural systems, the document encourages (i) an active community participation at all stages of water supply development; (ii) the leadership role of women in community water supply activities; (iii) requirement of appropriate arrangements to safeguard the needs of the vulnerable sections of the community in case of the necessary involvement of qualified private sector in the management of water systems.
As for the Governance, roles and responsibilities of the sector stakeholders shall be clearly delineated to avoid duplication and inconsistency in roles. The community shall (i) manage the rural systems and (ii) be responsible for the system sustainability, while the Government shall be responsible for (i) supporting and enabling the communities; (ii) institutional and legislative arrangements, capacity building of its own staff and communities; and (iii) implementation of the policy. Furthermore, the Government being deemed the custodian of all water resources, it will be responsible for the protection from pollution and overuse, ensuring sustainability and to achieve an equitable distribution among communities.