An IOM report published today highlighting some of the most urgent needs that former Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have to face once they return to their areas of origin in Southern Sudan and Southern Kordofan reveals that access to water is the biggest problem. "PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; FLOAT: right; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; WIDTH: 50%; PADDING-TOP: 0px"> "BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WIDTH: 100%; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(51,102,204); TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none">Download "BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WIDTH: 100%; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(153,204,255); TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"> "http://mnlintranettest:8091/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/publish…" target="_blank" title=""> "BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(153,204,255)">IOM Village Assessments and Returnee Monitoring in Southern Kordofan and Four States in Southern Sudan The report, which was compiled in partnership with the Government of National Unity (GoNU), the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) and in cooperation with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and partner NGOs, is based on assessments carried out in more than 1,500 villages in the states of Northern and Western Bahr al Ghazal, Warrab, Unity and Southern Kordofan.  Drinking water in particular remains the top priority in all areas of returns with almost a quarter of assessed villages relying on river water as their main water source. Another 60 per cent of villages rely on water fetched from hand pumps and wells but, the report found, maintenance of these pumps is extremely poor, leading to 43 per cent of the pumps not working. Lack of access to health care was rated as the second major concern, with only 20 per cent of the villages having some healthcare facilities but little or no qualified personnel. Throughout the region, 38 per cent of health staff consisted of midwives or traditional birth attendants, 32 per cent of nurses, 28 per cent medical assistants and only 2 per cent had medical doctors. HIV/AIDS awareness among the surveyed villages was also found to be low with only 11 per cent of interlocutors in Northern Bahr al Ghazal and Warrab states reporting any knowledge of the disease. Regarding education, the report found that 52 per cent of surveyed villages had access to education, mostly to basic primary school (72 per cent), with only 2 per cent having access to secondary school. Only 30 per cent of all pupils were female in Southern Sudan. The overwhelming majority of the population in areas of return lived from farming and livestock rearing, with some supplementing fishing activities.  "This report, which seeks to identify needs at the village level, provides important information on the reintegration needs of the returnees," says Mario Tavolaj, IOM's Chief of Mission in Sudan. "It also represents an important tool for planning medium- to long-term recovery in Southern Sudan." The March 2005 report of the Sudan Joint Assessment Mission estimated that some 4 million people had been displaced from or within Southern Sudan by 20 years of fighting between the northern and southern regions of the country. An estimated 1.7 million IDPs have successfully returned to Southern Sudan since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, according to IOM's latest tracking of spontaneous returns report. This report was funded by the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA/USAID), AusAID International Refugee Fund, the Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Threat and Risk Mapping Analysis team. The report is available online at "paragraph-link-no-underline" href= "http://www.iom.int/">www.iom.int. For more information, please contact: Gerry Waite IOM Sudan E-mail: "mailto:gwaite@iom.int">gwaite@iom.int  or Inge Zorn IOM Juba Tel: +249 (0)910623519 E-mail: "mailto:izorn@iom.int">izorn@iom.int