Heavy floods have hit various states across South Sudan, including Jonglei, Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria and Unity. In total, an area home to more than three million people has been affected, one quarter of the whole population.
About 420,000 of these people have been displaced from their homes; entire communities have been submerged and crops and livestock lost – the main source of income in the majority of counties across the country. Healthcare centres are inundated in an environment ideal for the spread of waterborne diseases and schools have been converted into emergency shelters. In times like this, basic needs like education fall to the wayside as communities focus on survival.
On top of devastating conflict in the past five years as a result of which nearly 400,000 people lost their lives, incidents like this are exacerbating difficulties faced by the South Sudanese people as they attempt to recover personally and rebuild the country as a whole. Despite heavy rains, there is a water crisis in South Sudan; according to the government, nearly 80% of the population do not have access to clean water on a daily basis. Extreme weather like this only makes it more difficult to access the most fundamental of needs.
Juba has not experienced a high level of floods but the rains have increased malaria, respiratory diseases among children and diarrhoea. Iklas (pictured), a mother of five, is one of the Trumpeter workers in Munuki which is one of the areas of Juba slightly affected by the floods due to its lowlands. The Trumpeter Community Health workers are conducting door-to-door health education during this time on practical hygiene, childcare, water treatment and communicable disease control.
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Please pray:
- For the people of South Sudan as they struggle to cope with losses resulting from the floods.
- That the waters would subside soon and that the rains would not return.
- For people in charge of responding to the floods and delivering aid to affected areas.
