11 August 2014 - Humanitarians are facing mounting challenges assisting over 40,000 displaced persons in UNMISS protection of civilian (PoC) sites in Bentiu, Unity State, where heavy rains have caused severe flooding.

“The water is up to the knees … and even if you have gumboots, the water can enter in,” said Susan Simon, an internally displaced person (IDP) in one of the five POCs. “Most people don’t lie down, they sleep while standing.”

Much of the camp flooded in July with the first heavy downpour, MSF Emergency Coordinator Ivan Gayton said in a statement. “Over 1,000 makeshift shelters filled with sewage contaminated floodwater. People used cooking pots to scoop up the water, tried to build mud dams across doorways to prevent water entering, but to no avail.”

As of 24 June, IDPs in the five sites numbered 40,574, according to the UN Resident Coordinator’s office. Of the total, some 19,904 are children below five years of age.

Many of those children are falling ill due to the contaminated water, which has brought with it an onslaught of waterborne diseases.

“We have seen over 200 deaths in our hospital since May 2014, most of them children,” Mr. Gayton said. ”Although mortality rates have improved in the last few weeks, we still see at least one child dying every day.

A devastating cycle sees infection cause weight loss, and weight loss in turn increases vulnerability to infection. This cycle results in children dying from severe acute malnutrition despite the availability of food, according to MSF.

With humanitarian work pinned down by flooding, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs chief in Bentiu Mohamed Siryon said efforts were now being made to drain water out of the POCs.

“Drainages are being dug by two excavators hired from a local contractor by the NGOs on the ground and the canal is about two kilometers now,” Mr. Siryon said. ‘It is expected to drain the water to the nearest river, and once this is done, the conditions of the IDPs will improve greatly.”

He added that a new PoC was planned, but acquiring land was a lengthy process. “The request for the land goes to UNMISS first and after approval from Juba, then action is undertaken.”

After conflict broke out in the country in mid-December 2013, tens of thousands of citizens fled their homes to take refugee UNMISS bases or neighbouring countries. Most IDPs and refugees are women and children.