Introduction

It is universally accepted that an adequate supply of water for drinking, personal hygiene, and other domestic purposes and adequate means of waste disposal are essential to public health and well-being. In arid areas the presence of water has long been regarded as the most valued asset of a country, a wealth, a way to progress and economic development. Unfortunately, vast numbers of people in developing countries, most of them living in rural areas, do not have access to safe sources of water. Thus, there is naturally a world-wide concern about water supplies, highlighted by the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation decade.

In the Sudan, in areas away from the Nile, water supply for domestic purposes is a chronic problem. People have long tried to solve it with their local primitive means. They have dug shallow wells and pools but they faced many difficulties when they were confronted with rock layers or hard non-cracking clays.

Water-shortage problems started to be critical in the 1940s when population density around the permanent water sources increased, leading to concentrations of both humans and animals, to conflicts between individuals and tribal groups, and to environmental deterioration and cover removal.

The Sudanese government recognized the problem of rural water supplies very early, and embarked on ambitious programmes to solve it. The problem of improving rural water supplies in the Sudan differs from one area to another.