Flooding submerges settlements in Tonj South County. November 2024. (Photo: Courtesy).

At least 1,800 individuals have been affected by fresh wave of more devastating floods in four counties of Warrap State, raising fears of snake bites and waterborne diseases including cholera, the state government said.

This comes after the countrywide floods intensity appears to peak after affecting 1.4 million people and displacing nearly 400,000 of them, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This could mean the disaster’s magnitude is smaller than feared when humanitarian actors predicted that it could impact more than 3 million people in the second half of 2024.

Warrap minister of information, William Wol Mayom said the water runoff across the flat plains submerged homes  near the Nile tributaries in four counties of Twic, Gogrial East, Gogrial West and Tonj North.

Mayom warned that the current flooding is more devastating than the previous ones, adding that the water level is increasing on daily basis.

“Second wave of the floods is more devastating than the first wave. It currently devastated areas that are situated along the river side,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“The situation is still worsening and there is overflow of water everywhere which is not decreasing but increasing on daily basis. Areas that have never been flooded since are already overflown by water. It started this week but the first wave came since July.”

Wol described the situation of the affected population as dire, pointing out that the locals in the area are living in fear of cattle related diseases and snake bites.

Mayom stressed that more intervention is needed from the government and partners.

“There are under fear of diseases, snake bites and cattle related diseases, all infrastructures are being submerged to water so the situation is very worst.”

“The intervention made by the government and partners needs to be doubled because the number of affected is higher than the response being organized by the partners and government.”

Since May 2024, floods have affected more than 1.4 million people across South Sudan, with livelihoods including farmlands and livestock wiped out, and hundreds of thousands forced out of their homes, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

As of 29 November, over 1.4 million people remain affected by flooding across 44 counties and the Abyei Administrative Area, the UN humanitarian agency said, adding that 

It further reveals that more than half of those affected are in Jonglei and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states and suspected cases continue to be recorded in flood-hit locations.

South Sudan is ranked as the second most vulnerable country globally to the impacts of natural hazards, including droughts and flooding, and among the top five countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, according to the 2023 INFORM Risk Index.

In December 2023, President Salva Kiir said climate change factors have negatively affected peace and security in South Sudan while addressing the UN Climate Change conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Kiir told over a hundred world leaders gathered in Dubai, that his underdeveloped country, which accounts for little to no carbon emission, is bearing the brunt of climate disasters.

He said four years of floods and droughts that have affected swathes of territories in South Sudan’s north and east, have wiped out livelihoods and forced communities to fight over scarce resource.