Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Community Empowerment for Progress (CEPO) executive director, Edmund Yakani, has urged the parliament to develop a comprehensive flood control strategy to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the coming rainy season.
Yakani said he had noted how torrential rains continue to wreak havoc in several parts of the country, mainly in Jonglei, the Lakes, and parts of Central and Western Equatoria states.
“The implications of the floods revolve around food and human security, health threats, livelihoods, and disturbing social cohesion among communities due to competition for high lands or lands far from the flooding,” he said.
In a statement released yesterday titled “The Threats of Floods on Humanity are Real,” CEPO quotes the commissioner of Mayendit County in Unity State, citing severe scenarios of flood-related impacts.
47 people have died after drowning in floodwaters and snakebites in the area since October last year. Several pregnant women miscarried due to walking long hours in flash floods,” said the commissioner.
According to the Global Humanitarian Review 2022, an estimated 809,000 people have been affected by floods in 33 counties across eight states since May 2021.
The states of Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile are the hardest hit. More than 75 per cent of the total number of people had their lives impacted in these three states.
Time to act
Given the threats that floods pose to local communities around the country, CEPO said it was time to take action. “National legislature should have meaningful parliamentary sessions or deliberations on the threats posed by floods to our communities,” said Yakani.
“The national legislature should take a proactive role in driving the government’s commitment to climate change with a specific focus on the threats of floods,” the activist stressed.
According to Yakani, the country’s leadership, both executive and legislative, should take the flood threat to the communities seriously and develop early flood response strategies.
CEPO’s Climate Change Advocacy Unit, also recommended that the president convene a national summit on flood mitigation. “This conference must be completed as soon as possible before April 2022.”
The team is also willing to lobby the Revitalised Transitional National Legislative Assembly’s key committees to seek an urgent government plan to mitigate flood concerns.
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