Twic East dike. (Photo: Deng Diar).

JONGLEI STATE, (Eye Radio) – Around 500 youth in Twic East and Bor counties in Jonglei have voluntarily come together and constructed a 20-kilometer dike in a local initiative aimed at mitigating devastating seasonal floods that have disrupted livelihoods.

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 INFORM Risk Index.

In 2024, more than 1.4 million people were impacted by flooding in 43 counties in South Sudan and the Abyei Administrative Area, according to the UN humanitarian agency. Jonglei and Northern Bahr el Ghazal were the most affected states.

The dike project – led by Dr. Deng Diar Diing, a member of the community, is in response to the severe flooding that submerges settlements and displaces thousands every year.

“The community of Twic East County of Jonglei state, 30 years back, had been able to use local initiative to protect itself from the flood,” he narrated.

Dr. Diar, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport, explained that the embankment was initially built in 2005, where a 40-kilomater dike was constructed from Baidit to Ayod as part of an emergency flood mitigation project.

However, the flood barriers wore out over time, and despite World Food Programme (WFP) funding for maintenance, a key spillway connecting to the Nile was breached in 2024, leading to persistent flooding.

“In 2024, the main point that always pours water into the county, that is some sort of a spillway connecting directly to the Nile, was breached by water. The community has been under the water for about a year now.”

“Local initiative from our engineers tried to understand the issue of floods and how it could be managed.  we prepared a paper that was about 90 pages.”

” It was able to look at what we call hydrologic routine, that is how much flood we have had for the last 100 years and how much are we likely to have in the next 100 years considering environmental change factors and climate change.”

Dr. Diar further narrated that the plan was to wait for the water levels to subside before beginning construction. He added that by the end of January, WFP attempted to start repairs, but the water was too deep for machines to operate.

“WFP had no other option but to think of pulling out. And then I told them, why don’t we use local initiative, be able to block water using temporary dike and the rest of the construction can be done using machines after the water levels have subsided.”

Diar then decided to reached out to chiefs and community leaders to mobilize around 500 youth to construct a temporary barrier manually. He said the dike has been successfully constructed and machines will now take over to complete the fortification.

He said with this effort, the community has successfully blocked further flooding, creating hope for a more permanent solution.

South Sudan is seeking financing from international climate agencies for an ambitious $639 million country program to mitigate climate disasters through adaptation and smart agriculture projects, an official said.