Since fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023, 430,000 refugees left their homes to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad. More than 200,000 refugees fleeing Sudan’s civil war have arrived in the town of Adre. Adre is a city at the border with Sudan where most refugees transit before relocation to other camps in the region. Living conditions in the refugee camp are disastrous and refugees' basic needs such as water, sanitation, food, and shelter are not met.
Water has become an everyday concern with women and young girls having to walk kilometres to traditional water sources (“wadi”) to fetch it. MSF has majorly invested in water and sanitation activities in Adre, and while we provide most of the water in the camp (80%), access to water is far below the recommended standard by UNHCR of 20 Litres per person per day and must be increased. On average in September our teams distribute 450-500 000 litres per day in the camp to 90 000 refugees, which represents roughly 6 litres of water per person per day, water that is used to drink, cook, and clean. This month (October) our capacity has increased to 600 000 litres per day distributed to the 130 000 refugees living in the camp.
There are numerous health risks associated with the lack of water such as cholera, and the current gaps pose a serious threat to public health. There is an urgent need for increased financial capacity to respond to this crisis. MSF calls on the international donor community to allocate funding that reflects the severity and anticipated longevity of the crisis, to enable humanitarian actors to respond accordingly. Additional humanitarian assistance must be mobilised as more refugees are expected to cross the border towards the end of the rainy season.