The Director General at the Ministry of Water and Rural Development, Dut Deng Gabriel, said on Thursday that the distribution follows a resolution reached during a cluster meeting involving partners and officials from the State Ministry of Health.
He said chlorine tablets are being distributed in the Maper-Akot-Aru and Mathiang neighborhoods to help control the spread of the disease.
“We are trying to contain the disease. The chlorine tablets come in small containers with a powder-like substance that should be applied to water containers,” Dut explained. “We urge parents to store them properly and keep them out of reach of children to avoid contamination.”
Dut added that the distribution will continue for a week across different areas of Aweil Town.
One of the beneficiaries, Mary Adior, welcomed the intervention, saying residents have been trained on how to use the chlorine tablets to purify water.
“We are happy to receive the chlorine and water buckets from the organizations. We’ve been trained on how to use the tablets to purify and kill germs in the water,” she said.
Cholera remains one of the deadliest diseases in the state, with recent reports indicating that it has killed dozens of people in Aweil South County. Despite ongoing awareness campaigns, poor waste disposal continues to fuel the re-emergence of the disease.
Health officials suspect that some of the cases in Northern Bahr el Ghazal may have originated from Gogrial West County in Warrap State, where cholera infections have recently surged.
