Flooded areas around Pibor in 2019 | Credit | MSF

The government is expected to implement a five-year project to help enhance the resilience of communities to better cope with natural disasters, after it received nearly 200 million US dollars in segments from the World Bank this year.

The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Emmanuel Ladu disclosed, the government has secured a grant of 120 million US dollars from the World Bank in March to help communities affected by flooding.

Ladu said the government is using the fund to improve access to basic infrastructure and strengthening community institutions.

“Recently, with the help of ministry of finance, we received a grant of 120 million US dollars and this amount is not for dredging but to help the community to be the resilience of flood this includes the community of Bor and Unity State,” Ladu said during the public consultation on the Nile Waters in Juba.

The official further revealed, the government has received an additional 50 million US dollars from the World Bank to develop the South Sudan Water Resources Master plan.

“We also received additional of 20 million dollars to help these states in water management for the first time world bank has accepted to assist us to by fund to help us to carry out water resources master plane,” he said.

South Sudan has experienced extreme flooding over the past three years, with 835,000 people affected by flooding in 2021 alone.

In Unity State, the flood has submerged more than 90% of the land surface and confined populations to crowded IDPs camps, according to humanitarian reports.

Last year, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that many people in remote areas were cut off from humanitarian aid, worsening an already critical humanitarian crisis in the country.

The flood response and mitigation fund are expected to bolster disaster alert and preparedness in the flood-stricken areas of Unity and Jonglei states.

The grant from international donors was announced after some participants in the public consultation said the international partners are not putting enough effort to help alleviate the flood crisis in the country.

In May this year, the government of Jonglei state and partners launched an $11 million project to mitigate the impact of flooding and other climate change induced disasters in Jonglei State.

The flood mitigation project is funded by the Kingdom of Netherlands and implemented by the International Organization for Immigration – South Sudan.

Later in the same month, an official in Jognlei State said to Eye Radio, the construction of dykes had started around the flood-prone Fangak County of Jonglei State.

According to John Samuel Manyuon, the initiative was supported by the UN’s World Food Program.

Manyuon says the construction is taking place in the two areas of New Fangak and Old Fangak.

Fangak, a small island of over 100,000 people in the Sudd region is one of the hardest-hit areas by flash floods in the country in recent months