AYOD, South Sudan — Long-horned cattle navigate through submerged terrains, relying on a canal that has turned into a sanctuary for families dislocated by floods in South Sudan. The air is filled with the scent of burning dung rising from makeshift homes constructed from mud and grass, where thousands are now living after their villages were devastated by rising waters.
Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s, expressed her despair, saying, “There is too much suffering.” As she moved with the aid of a stick in the newly formed community of Pajiek, located in Jonglei state to the north of Juba, she reflected on how recently she had to evacuate from her home due to unprecedented flooding. Despite her efforts to fortify her home with dykes, her former village of Gorwai has transformed into a vast swamp.
“I had to be rescued in a canoe to reach here,” said Chuiny, who was drawing attention as the first journalist arrived to witness the community’s plight. Flooding has increasingly become a recurrent crisis in South Sudan, labeled by the World Bank as “the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change,” and one of the least capable of managing its effects.
According to the United Nations humanitarian office, over 379,000 people have been forcibly displaced this year due to flooding. Although seasonal flooding has historically been woven into the lifestyle of pastoral communities residing near the Sudd—the largest wetlands in Africa within the Nile River floodplain—the situation has worsened since the 1960s, with the swamps swallowing villages, decimating farmlands, and wiping out livestock.
“The Dinka, Nuer, and Murle communities in Jonglei are losing the capacity to raise cattle and engage in agriculture as they did traditionally,” remarked Daniel Akech Thiong, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. South Sudan struggles to adapt; since gaining independence in 2011, the nation has been engulfed in civil conflict beginning in 2013. Despite a peace agreement reached in 2018, the government has been slow to alleviate the numerous ongoing challenges, with approximately 2.4 million individuals remaining internally displaced.
The recent surge in water levels of the Nile has been attributed to various factors, including the opening of upstream dams in Uganda, prompted by Lake Victoria experiencing its highest water levels in five years. Meanwhile, the unfinished Jonglei Canal, established over a century ago, has inadvertently provided refuge for many.
“If it weren’t for this canal, we can only imagine how much more flooding would have displaced us,” stated Peter Kuach Gatchang, Pajiek’s paramount chief. He has begun cultivating a small garden of pumpkins and eggplants in their new settlement.
The historic Jonglei Canal, which spans 340 kilometers (211 miles), was conceived in the early 1900s by Anglo-Egyptian colonial officials to enhance the Nile’s water flow northward toward Egypt. However, its construction was interrupted by decades of conflict, which ultimately resulted in South Sudan’s independence.
Gatchang emphasized the inadequacy of their new community’s infrastructure, noting, “We have no school, no clinic, and if you stay here a while, you will witness us transporting patients on stretchers to Ayod town.” To reach Ayod, the county seat, residents must trek through water that reaches waist-high, a journey that takes up to six hours.
Lacking a mobile network and official governance, Pajiek is overseen by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, founded by Riek Machar, the rival of current President Salva Kiir. Villagers depend on humanitarian aid; recently, hundreds of women gathered in a nearby field for provisions from the World Food Program.
Nyabuot Reat Kuor, a mother of eight, described the challenges they face, clutching a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of sorghum on her head. “The flooding has obliterated our farm, decimated our livestock, and displaced us permanently,” she lamented. “Our old village of Gorwai has turned into a river.”
Once food assistance dwindles, she indicated that they would resort to consuming wild leaves and water lilies from the swamp. Unfortunately, consistent cuts to food aid have halved rations in recent years due to declining international support for such crises.
Currently, over 69,000 individuals who have migrated to the Jonglei Canal region in Ayod county are registered for food assistance, as reported by the World Food Program. “At this time of year, transportation routes are impassable, and the canal’s levels are too low to facilitate boats laden with food,” explained John Kimemia, a WFP airdrop coordinator.
In the adjacent Paguong village, also engulfed by flooding, healthcare resources are in short supply, and health workers have not received their salaries since June, following a nationwide economic crisis that has left civil servants unpaid for over a year.
As South Sudan grapples with ongoing economic challenges, disrupted oil exports have exacerbated the situation following the damage to a significant pipeline in Sudan amid its civil unrest. “The last time we received medical supplies was in September; we even organized for women to transport them on foot from Ayod town,” said Juong Dok Tut, a clinical officer.
Patients, primarily women and children, waited anxiously on the ground to consult the doctor, and when a thin green snake slithered among them, a wave of panic surged through the group. Though the snake was non-venomous, many surrounding species are potentially lethal. Individuals brave enough to fish or gather water lilies from the water face dangerous encounters. In October alone, four snakebite cases requiring immediate medical attention were recorded, according to Tut. “We managed those situations utilizing the antivenom we had, but it’s finished now; we are uncertain about what we will do next time,” he remarked.