Owners of a number of establishments in Aweil that formerly sold shisha have complained of a loss in income and, potentially, employment following a ban on the practice issued last week.

Aweil town mayor, Dabek Atak, ordered the ban within the Northern Bahr-el Ghazal state capital claiming that the smoke is harmful to pregnant women and young children.

Samuel James, who ran a shisha establishment in the town said, “There are no jobs in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal which is why I opened the shisha place in order not to steal somebody else’s things or stay jobless. I have a family that depends on shisha as a business and now their lives are going to be hard.”

Nourah Alam, a foreigner also living in Aweil, reiterated these concerns as well as her personal fear of the ban’s impact on her livelihood.“We sold shisha in order to get a small amount of money to pay for immigration and pay for our accommodation because there are no jobs in South Sudan unless you go to a bar and have sex with men, which is a dirty job.”

Some of those who spoke to Radio Tamazuj questioned the banning of shisha over alcohol which, they claim, affects people’s health more and results in a higher incidence of death.

Conversely, some regular shisha smokers also added that they have been affected by withdrawal from the substance, suffering from headaches and tiredness. As a result, they called upon state authorities to simply ban shisha bars operating within residential areas.

One week ago, Mayor Atak warned that anyone smoking shisha in public will face legal repercussions including termination of their license, confiscation of all shisha as well as a fine.