The Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has called on the transitional government to devise measures of mitigating floods in the flood prone areas of Unity and Jonglei State.
Yakani said these remarks in an interview with this reporter on Tuesday.
“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to our national government in particular, the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, ministry of environment and forestry and the ministry of health to organize an urgent national roundtable on management of possible flooding in our communities,” Yakani said in Juba.
The rainy season has commenced this month, and this could see communities in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile States which were affected by heavy flooding last year, struggling again this year.
“This year the rain is going to be heavy as per records of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) climate monitoring system, and the dykes the government is planning to work on with partners may not be sustainable,” Yakani said.
“We need to put in place a joint management of possible implication of floods in our communities of Unity State and Jonglei State,” he said.
The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) during their latest climate outlook said the forecast for March to May 2023 season in South Sudan points towards depressed rainfall and high temperatures.
Nearly a million people were displaced from their homes by heavy floods since 2021 in South Sudan, according to the United Nations.
