End Water Poverty's South Sudan

We urge you to make access to sanitation, water and hygiene education a priority for your new Government.

As representatives of civil society from many nations, we would like to congratulate you on the formation of the new state of South Sudan, and to support your efforts to provide sanitation and water for the people of South Sudan.

We are concerned about the situation in the country where 80\% of the population does not have access to any toilet facility, 45\% of the population does not have access to improved sources of drinking water, one in ten of children die before their first birthday and over a third of the population has to walk for more than 30 minutes each way to collect drinking water .

We further congratulate you on joining the Sanitation and Water for All international partnership, the creation of the South Sudan Water Council and the South Sudan Water Information Clearing House (SSWICH), and urge you to increase coordination, cooperation and transparency in policy making.

We ask the government and partners to focus on reducing the disparities in water access and sanitation between districts and rural and urban areas, to take action to eradicate corruption and keep water payments at affordable levels for all.