Sudan faces significant problems within and surrounding its borders: social conflict, political hostility, displacement, poverty, disease and viruses, and water scarcity. Its water crisis antagonizes other issues, with parts of the country’s environment even developing in to unsuitable living area.

Water scarcity and drastic ecological change are viewed by scientists and sociologists as a root of a violent conflict occurring in the region of Darfur. Droughts during the 1980s caused parts of Sudan’s landscapes to become unlivable, forcing migrations of nomadic herders in to regions of sustained rural farmlands. From this, and the resulting competition for water sources, social conflict arose. All forms of poor agricultural communities depend on Sudan’s limited supply of accessible water to survive, which has bred conflict.

The livelihood of Sudan depends on its current overuse of its water sources. 80% of the country works in agriculture,accounting for 97% of its water use. Most farms are rural and fed by rainwater. They provide for a family or a small community, making them the majority means of living for the Sudanese. However, rural farms are adversely affected by Sudan’s government and its water policies. The government uses most of the area’s underground water sources to provide for their own mechanized farms. The irrigation used to feed the government controlled farms and intense farming by rural Sudanese are causal to the arid environment diffusing over Sudan.

Women and children must spend the most time in their days to collect water from distant sources. By this, they risk their health and safety, and lose productivity from other domestic duties. In Sudan about 2% of water is available for domestic use (In the United States, water for domestic use accounts for 13% of total supply).

Most of Sudan’s currently accessible underground water is shared with surrounding countries. Sudan utilizes part of the Nile River Basin, but its use is not regulated or maintained by the government. This unrestrained use of shared water, mostly for irrigation and energy, creates tension with neighboring countries like Egypt and Ethiopia. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) uses the term water stress to refer to a situation where political or economic problems occur because of a lack of water.

According to the Water Systems Analysis Group at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire, about a quarter of Africa’s population suffers from water stress. Sudan has a serious case of water stress.

Sudan’s people are at high risks for contracting waterborne diseases. Within five months in 2006 there were 476 deaths caused by diarrhoea, with Cholera-causing bacterium present in stool samples. Similarly, the Darfur region had 3753 reported cases of hepatitis E from May to August 2004.

Contaminated drinking water may also cause Dracunculiasis, or Guinea Worm Disease. It can rapidly affect a water supply for a village by one infected person, harming the total area. Three out of five cases of Guinea Worm Disease come from Sudan. Open water sources, such as standing ponds, are common modes of transferring diseases in villages.

Sudan’s ecological changes have left the Sudanese to struggle for their own survival. The country is failing to provide clean, accessible water to all regions, and the effects create conflict.