worse for wear. He had bright white hair. He was old, and a former teacher. He recounted tales out of his life, and we listened attentively. After a while, he asked us where we came from. He said that he knew Germany well from radio broadcasts. For many years, he had listened to the short wave broadcasts of the BBC to keep abreast of what was going on in the world. Something that had made him especially sad was the building of the wall throughout Germany in 1961. This was because it would separate the people living there. He prayed since that event every day for the fall of the wall, even though he had never seen it. This came to pass in 1989. Although living in one of the most remote corners of what is today South Sudan, this man was able to show us that the injustice symbolized by this wall had moved him. And that he had done whatever he could to stand up for his fellow human beings in Europe. He had prayed. At this moment, we felt ourselves to be loved deeply by this man. It was a moment that, once more, conveyed the import of our personal credo to us: We help people. We work with them, and we protect their rights.”
Over the following decades, our rendering of humanitarian assistance in Southern Sudan was joined by the conducting of development projects and of missions to protect human rights. This joint thrust—when carried out in crisis regions— generates tension: This is because helping people assert their rights automatically means raising your voice against the powers that be. As is the case in other countries run by potentates, it is precisely those in power that get to decide whether or not you will be allowed to speak with the people. Notwithstanding this, Sign of Hope places importance on supplying people with food, water, medicine and education (through the building of schools)—and on attacking the roots of their problems—the lack of respect of their human rights. Klaus Stieglitz and Reimund Reubelt share the conviction that “our wish to form on-site true partnerships of respect with the disadvantaged requires our ensuring their getting their rights. What’s at stake: protecting human dignity.”
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In 2006, Sign of Hope was accorded consultative status by the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council. This fostered Sign of Hope’s work to publicize violations of human rights in Southern Sudan.
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At the end of 2007, problems with drinking water were brought to the attention of Sign of Hope. The German organization was told of the contamination being found in the water available for drinking in certain regions of Southern Sudan. The initial tests made of the water confirmed the assumption that this contamination stemmed from the extraction of oil. Sign of Hope commissioned the conducting of a comprehensive, scientific study.
It found that this connection in fact existed. This book tells the story of Sign of Hope’s attempts to get the oil companies to adhere to internationally-applicable standards. The story tells the chronology of the organization’s push to enable the 180,000 affected residents to assert their human right to have clean water to drink. Another thrust of this push is the attempt to conserve one of the world’s largest wetlands and its unique biodiversity. This book will also depict the mechanisms employed by a newly-founded state to rule. These mechanisms have turned the country’s oil reserves into a curse for its population. This chronology also reveals, by way of contrast, something gratifying. There are buttons for outsiders to push. And pushing them can in fact affect the decisions reached by the liable parties—if the pushing is undertaken on a lasting and thoroughgoing basis.
2008
A Suspicion
For more than 20 years, Southern Sudan has been the focus of Sign of Hope’s work. The rendering of assistance in an area repeatedly roiling with crises requires the careful selection of partners, ones capable of pursuing projects even in times of great difficulty. South Sudan (which was formerly part of the country of Sudan) is one of the poorest countries in the world. As such, it requires a wide variety of assistance: in helping supply its people with food, potable water, medical treatment (via “bush” clinics and other parts of a dedicated infrastructure) and education. Requisite to set up a resilient organization is the dispatching of own staff to the region. They then work with local players. Sign of Hope accordingly has deployed up to 80 staff members to South Sudan. Their jobs include the facilitation of mother-children projects, of the building of village day care centers, and of the operation of two bush clinics.
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Sign of Hope received at the end of 2007 an alarming message from Southern Sudan. It stated that a trustworthy person living in the region had been receiving over the past few weeks and months ever-more frequent and disturbing reports of there being something wrong with the water found in the vicinity of the oil rigs ringing Thar Jath. Worried mothers were complaining about its bitterness. It was being said that the water was so salty that children were immediately vomiting after drinking it. Cases of stomach aches and diarrhea were reported to have become more and more common. Along with children, the elderly and the weak were suffering from this. Livestock were dying in unusually large numbers. According to the herders, this was due to the bad water. The people in the region viewed the cause of the water’s contamination as being the wastes produced by the oil industry. The wastes contained chemicals that were probably being deposited in the ambient environment. As the message stated, there were no hard facts. Our contacts in the region issued a desperate plea. They had neither funds nor any ways of conducting an investigation. So they were asking Sign of Hope to do such. The organization was surely capable of helping from its base in Germany?
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The staff working for Sign of Hope’s Sudan Project are equally as alarmed. Access to safe water has become in any case a main concern of many of the world’s human rights activists. On December 23, 2003, the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations called “Water for Life” into being. This was to be an International Decade of Action.1 The Decade commenced on March 22, 2005, which was World Water Day. The Decade was to end on March 22, 2015.2 The Decade was to be employed to make the world’s decision-makers and the general public aware of the importance of water. A thrust of this program was pushing to ensure that commitments made were lived up to.3 The program’s objective was to halve by 2015 the number of people that do not have access to safe water and to appropriate sanitary facilities.4 Another objective: putting an end to unsustainable ways of using water.5
The right to consume clean water still hasn’t been officially approved and to thus take legal force. The world is, however, increasingly aware of the water-related emergencies facing its peoples—and of the ever-more apparent ramifications of these. This awareness is yielding action. Such human rights organizations as Sign of Hope regard the human right to have clean water as being indisputable.
No one knows what we at Sign of Hope will discover in the Sudan. Perhaps the reports of bad water are nothing more than unfounded rumors. That has been known to happen. Speaking against this is the verdict rendered by our contact, who enjoys our complete trust. He regards the situation as being very serious. That is why there is only one decision to be reached. We have to see whether or not the fears are in fact based in fact. But how are we to go about this? We could takes samples from the oil fields, to see if they are contaminated. We are currently preparing our next trip to the Sudan. Its purpose is to ascertain the state of human rights. We have put the areas of oil extraction on our itinerary. Sign of Hope has never gathered samples of water. Our operating maxim also, however, applies to this case: anything practical will be done.
The first step is easy. Klaus Stieglitz is friends with a staff member of a water testing laboratory. It is located in the vicinity of the Lake of Constance. Stieglitz’ friend shows him to gather samples of water, and how to perform quick tests of it. He also instructs him in the preparation of the samples for being investigated in laboratories. Another laboratory—also located in the same region—is to be commissioned with the
