Aerial of Juba from the south to the north.

The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation says South Sudan still anticipates flooding despite a significant reduction in the amount of water released in Uganda.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Water resources said the level of water from Lake Victoria has decreased from 13.66 meters to 13.26 meters due to the off-season period in the lake basin.

Based on a communication with their Uganda counterpart, the Ministry said Uganda government has also reduced the water release from 2,600 cubic meter per second to 2,400 cubic meter per second.

A further reduction to up to 2,200 cubic meter per second is expected by 16th August.

The Ministry however said it is analyzing the rainfall patterns of South Sudan for the year 2024 and will compare data generated from its newly established early warning system with ICAP’s regional forecast.

Despite the decrease, the Ministry of Water Resources said: “The Nile River measures of the water level rise have now hit the flood marks in Nimule, Juba and Mangala.”

It adds that the build up of water storage in Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert due to high release from Jinja since April till the 3rd week of July is huge enough to cause riverine flooding.

Other causes it mentioned is the outflow from Jebel Aulia dam is so small that will not significantly reduce the water back-flow.

The Ministry however advised that “flood awareness, control, mitigation and preparedness must be hurried.”

It further urged “prepositioning of essential supplies and deployment of equipment to areas of flood hotspot for responses must be undertaken urgently.”