Water-borne diseases threatens floods-affected Unity residents – MSF

JUBA – Outbreak of water and vector-borne diseases are threatening the lives of residents of South Sudan’s Unity state which has been in a flooding situation for several months, a medical charity said Tuesday.

Will Turner, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Emergency Operations Manager, said residents of  Bentiu are facing outbreaks of infectious from waterborne diseases, increased food insecurity, and malnutrition caused by severe flood sine decades.

“The dangerously slow and inadequate humanitarian response is putting lives at risk. The deplorable situation inside Bentiu displacement camp – the former Protection of Civilians site –is not a new phenomenon,” Turner said in a statement extended to Sudans Post on Tuesday.

Turner said the failure of humanitarian organizations and authorities to scale up enough response has left at least152, 000 displaced people in horrific living conditions.

“Now we are facing a situation where even in this current crisis, there seems to be paralysis in action, resulting in horrific living conditions and huge health risks for the people living in Bentiu camp and across makeshift camps in Bentiu town,” the statement added.

He called on other humanitarian organizations in Bentiu, the United Nations, the Ministry of Health, and as well as the government of South Sudan, to urgently increase food and nutrition assistance, water and sanitation services, shelter, and healthcare.

“For years, we have repeatedly warned about the dire conditions, yet other organizations and agencies responsible for the water and sanitation services in the camp have not sufficiently increased or adjusted their activities,” he said.

This year’s floods have hit the people in Bentiu, the capital of an oil-rich state, Unity the hardest.

An estimated 32,000 people have fled rising floodwaters in the surrounding villages and counties of Guit and Nhialdiu, and are now living in four makeshift camps in Bentiu town.

Jacob Goldberg, MSF emergency medical manager expressed deep concern over the deteriorating health conditions of children and women.

“We are extremely concerned about malnutrition, with severe acute malnutrition levels two times the WHO threshold and the number of children admitted to our hospital with severe malnutrition doubling since the start of the floods,” said Goldberg.

Goldberg added that the Bentiu state hospital is overstretched and the basic healthcare available is insufficient, with limited bed capacity to admit large numbers of patients.

“When the floods came it destroyed everything. We had to leave our house. Now we are suffering because we don’t have the essentials like plastic sheets, clean water, enough food,” said Johnson Gatluak, a 28-year-old man who was displaced by the floods.

“My wish for the future is that the water levels subside so that people can go back to their homes and for my family to have enough food,” Gatluak added.