Flooding pushes already devastated South Sudan further to the brink

Lanyeri, in the Greater Pibor area of South Sudan, is one of the areas hardest hit by flooding in the world's newest nation. Doctors Without Borders says as many as 500,000 people's lives were at risk due to the flooding. Image: Tetiana Gaviuk / MSF

In a country that relies almost exclusively on international aid for health care, and with very limited formal infrastructure, the risks to the South Sudanese are real.

“I can’t believe what my eyes have seen in Pibor,” said Simon Peter Olweny, MSF’s water and sanitation coordinator in Pibor.

“So much destruction of infrastructure and resources. There is a lack of public toilets in the town. In our clinic, we have only two toilets and no space to build more to meet a minimum requirement for hundreds of patients we treat each day.

“These conditions are a breeding ground for diseases.”

For Rosenstein, the situation in South Sudan shows how the country - devastated by decades-long civil war, including since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 - continues to suffer.

“Today’s emergency is just another situation that is having a compounded effect on the local community. The worst of the flooding is yet to happen, and the community is already feeling the strains of food insecurity,” he said.

“Lack of access to health care will only get worse over the coming weeks and months, and conditions will only grow more precarious for people.”

TimesLIVE