BENTIU – In Unity State, the climate crisis is the one constant in residents’ lives.
For years, they have been subjected to the devastating impact of ever-increasing water levels caused by persistent, extraordinary flooding that has submerged around 70 percent of the land.
The phenomenon of heavy rains and rising water levels in the Nile River, combined with the geography of this low-lying region in the “Sudd” of South Sudan has changed communities’ lives forever.
They have lost loves ones, forced to abandon their ancestral lands, and adopt a new approach to income-generation, such as shifting from agriculture to fishing.
Many are now almost wholly dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.
While this year’s rainy season has been delayed, it is still expected to arrive – with a vengeance.
“The residents of Bentiu face a multipronged threat,” warns Sam Korutaro Muhumure, the Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan’s Field Office in Bentiu.
“While the weather pattern has changed, heavy rains are set to coincide with the El Niño phenomenon from October to February. If the water level rises above what we saw at the beginning of this year, then the earthen dykes will not be able to hold back the water.”
Built and maintained around the clock by UNMISS and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the vast network of berms and dykes protects the 300,000 civilians sheltering behind them and the main supply routes into the town, including the airport.
For now.
“IOM is shouldering the largest burden of the work to maintain the dykes and pump out the water that collects in the displacement camp, but they have a shortage of resources,” explains Mr. Muhumure. “If they cannot get funding to continue their work, then the lives of the people in this region are at stake and it will be a major humanitarian situation.”
“Remember that this camp is filled with women and children – and if the work of the UN and IOM were to be affected, and if a breach in the dykes was not repaired within ten hours, we estimate that 50,000 people will be submerged,” he says.
Given the enormity of the threat, the community is desperate for international support to continue.
“My message to humanitarian actors and donors is to work hand-in-hand with communities and provide funding to sustain the construction and maintenance of the dykes, and to support mechanisms to protect us,” pleads Nyier Gatchang, the Chairperson of the Community High Committee in the displacement camp.
However, as already scarce humanitarian resources are stretched across competing global crises, it is more important than ever for South Sudan’s Government to take the lead, given the situation has transformed from a cyclical flood emergency to a permanent hydrological crisis.
“We are here to support the people of South Sudan, but the primary responsibility for the protection of the people is that of the Government,” states Mr. Muhumure.
“That is why we call upon the government to shoulder this responsibility - to feed the displaced community as well as to provide them with security and a long-term solution to this flooding problem.”
You might imagine that the delayed rain has brought at least temporary relief for flood-weary Bentiu residents.
Instead, it has created a new problem.
Those who still have access to land have planted crops. But the lack of rain means they’re unlikely to produce a significant harvest this year.
Yet another blow for communities who have suffered for far too long and are fast losing hope.
