Water Everywhere, but No Relief: Flooding Crisis Engulfs South Sudan
Devastated by rising waters, communities face hunger, isolation, and collapsing infrastructure as climate change fuels an escalating humanitarian emergency
- Over 379,000 people displaced this year alone as record floods ravage South Sudan
- Families rely on airdropped food aid and foraged plants amidst dwindling resources and isolation
- Crumbled infrastructure and a struggling government worsen the nation’s vulnerability to climate disasters
Once a predictable seasonal event, South Sudan’s flooding has turned into an annual disaster, displacing hundreds of thousands and devastating livelihoods. Families like Nyabuot Reat Kuor’s, forced from their homes in Gorwai, are enduring the brunt of this crisis.
“We lost our farm, livestock, and home to the floods. Now we survive on wild plants,” Nyabuot shared, recounting her struggle.
Over 69,000 people in Ayod County alone rely on food aid from the World Food Programme (WFP) while foraging in swamps when supplies run out. This year, more than 379,000 people have been displaced, with South Sudan’s fragile infrastructure and governance crippled by years of civil war.
Cut off by impassable roads and shallow canals, airdrops are the only means of delivering aid. Yet funding shortfalls have forced food rations to be halved, leaving families like Nyabuot’s to fend for themselves in isolation. Healthcare systems have collapsed, and communities wade through waist-deep water to reach aid hubs.
The worsening floods are linked to upstream dam operations, rising Lake Victoria water levels, and an expanding Sudd wetland. Meanwhile, the abandoned Jonglei Canal project serves as a precarious refuge for the displaced.
For South Sudan, this is more than a climate disaster—it’s a humanitarian crisis revealing the nation’s vulnerabilities. For Nyabuot and thousands of others, survival hangs by a thread.
