Expert warns of prolonged floods, drought amid climate change

JUBA – Prolonged floods and droughts are expected to worsen with climate change in South Sudan, an environmentalist warned.

Joseph Africano Bartel, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said South Sudan is expected to be faced with frequent flooding and drought in the coming years.

“I have to underscore, floods are going to be frequent and droughts are going to be frequent. So the change in our climatic system is going to be there,” Bartel said during the opening of public consultation on the dredging of Rivers in Juba on Sunday.

Bartel said the country has developed a second national determinant to curb the impact of climate change.

“We also have our National Adaption Program of action that we develop and also our National Adaption Plan,” Bartel said.

He said flooding has affected societies across the globe.

“Every country, is not us alone are suffering from the impact of the flood and I would like to underscore to our suffering people in Unity State, Jonglei State, and Warrap that you are not the only people who are suffering from floods,” he said.

“Floods are now global phenomena, recently in Canada, U.S, Germany, South Africa, floods are there and they are going to be frequent.”

South Sudan has been experiencing extreme flooding over the past three years, with 1.2 million people affected by flooding across the country.

Jonglei state in the east and the two oil-producing states of Unity and Upper Nile in the north are said to be the worst affected as a result of rising waters across the country since May.

The worst flooding in decades has left more than 100 people dead.

The UN Agency linked what it called the worst flooding since the 1960s with the climate emergency.