By Alan Clement
South Sudan’s deepening water crisis and financing shortfalls have been thrust into sharp focus after the United Nations warned that global progress on the 2030 Agenda is “alarmingly off track.”
According to a UN statement, while opening the 2026 Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Partnership Forum in New York, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed told delegates that 2.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safe drinking water, a figure she said reflects systemic failures rather than a lack of solutions.
“For South Sudan, this is not an abstract statistic. It is a daily reality that undermines health, stability and human dignity,” Mohammed said in a statement.
According to UNICEF, 59 percent of South Sudan’s population lacks access to safe drinking water, while only 42 percent have access to basic sanitation.
In rural areas, families often depend on contaminated rivers and ponds, exposing children to cholera, diarrhoeal diseases and other waterborne infections among the country’s leading causes of child mortality.
Years of conflict, flooding and economic instability have compounded the crisis, leaving humanitarian agencies to shoulder responsibilities that would normally fall to the state.
Mohammed stressed that declarations alone will not close these gaps. “Closing these gaps will not happen through statements,” she said.
“It will happen through country-led partnerships that are transparent about who is doing what, financed at scale, and held to results,” she added.
In 2025, the South Sudanese government pledged a bold response, announcing a 13-fold increase in the national water and sanitation budget under a Presidential Compact that cast access to clean water as a pillar of peace and stability.
Yet despite the promise, implementation has faltered, leaving service delivery uneven and communities waiting. “Countries and communities already know what they need,” Mohammed stated adding, “Our role is to reinforce that knowledge, amplify it, and help ensure it endures.”
Beyond water, Mohammed warned of a broader development chokehold stating that developing countries face an annual Sustainable Development Goals financing gap exceeding 4 trillion dollars, a burden that is particularly devastating for fragile states.
The impact in South Sudan is stark as the World Bank estimated that less than 10 percent of the population has access to electricity, one of the lowest rates globally.
Hospitals operate without reliable power, schools struggle to function, and private investment remains limited. “Financing gaps translate directly into development failures,” Mohammed said. “Without power, water, and infrastructure, progress simply stalls.”
Despite recent global commitments including the Sevilla Commitment on Financing for Development and the Doha Political Declaration from the World Social Summit, Mohammed cautioned against complacency.
“Momentum is not the same as delivery. Closing these gaps will not happen through statements,” she stated.
South Sudan remains heavily dependent on humanitarian aid, with limited domestic revenue and fragile institutions. The 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan warned that economic crisis, conflict in neighbouring Sudan and widespread flooding had pushed millions deeper into vulnerability.
As a result, electrification projects remain underfunded, housing shortages persist, and informal settlements continue to expand around Juba and other urban centres.
“We have five years. That is enough time to show real movement if we are clear about roles, honest about constraints, and serious about follow-through,” Mohammed stressed.
While acknowledging stalled progress on poverty reduction, hunger and gender equality, Mohammed pointed to global gains as proof that coordinated action can deliver results.
Since 2015, she noted, electricity access has reached 92 percent of the global population, AIDS-related deaths have been halved, and more than 100 million additional children have gained access to education.
“These advances happened because the right actors converged around shared goals with shared purpose,” she noted.
For South Sudan, replicating that model by aligning government leadership, civil society action and private-sector financing around concrete projects could mean the difference between continued crisis and measurable progress.
“Partnerships are not optional. They are the practical engine that turns financing into delivery,” Mohammed concluded.
With five years left to meet the 2030 targets, her message was unequivocal: without partnerships that deliver clean water and close financing gaps, South Sudan and many countries like it will remain dangerously off track.