A conductor fills up a water tank at a water plant by the Nile River on Wednesday, Nov 4, 2020 | Credit | Michael Daniel/Eye Radio

The water supply system being constructed in Juba city will be completed early next year.

“The water supply project will take one more year, up to the beginning of 2022, we will finish it,” Mitsuhiro Tomaya, the Charge d’Affaires of the Japanese Embassy in Juba said in an interview.

“They already started the construction, they will put in their best effort to finish the project.”

Tomaya added that Japanese engineers are currently installing three components of the water project – the treatment plant, water reservoir and water distribution stations.

“We hope after the project is finished, clean and drinkable water will be supplied to the whole of Juba,” Tomaya said.

In 2013, the Japan International Cooperation Agency—JICA initiated a water treatment plant that includes the construction of a service reservoir and pipes for distribution in Juba.

The project was, however, interrupted by years of violence that resulted in the Japanese government evacuating its engineers from the country.

According to JICA, when completed, the water project will provide clean water to more than 25,000 people in the capital.

Most residents of Juba rely on untreated water drawn from the Nile by private water tanker operators.