Flooding in South Sudan: UN agencies continue to respond to the needs of the affected people

More than 800,000 people in South Sudan have been affected by the current flooding which started in 2021. And the flooding is not yet over. Contrary to past years, water levels in many locations are not residing, despite the onset of the dry season.

In this flooding season, a higher number of people are now exposed for longer periods of time to the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the impact of floods, including lack of access to basic social services. Children are particularly impacted, including on their rights to protection against abuses and exploitation.  

Climate change is impacting the most vulnerable people in South Sudan as never before. Due to extreme weather conditions and flooding, families are displaced to higher grounds, whilst life-saving services are often cut off or inaccessible. Families lack access to clean water and proper health care, contributing to increased sickness and malnutrition.  Women and girls are at higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence as they are displaced and seeking services and resources in faraway areas.  As their schools are flooded, children cannot access education, impacting their learning. Without the protective environment of the school, they become more vulnerable to child rights abuses and exploitation like early pregnancies, recruitment in gangs and armed groups, child labor and gender-based violence.

• 835,000 people affected by floods
• 31 out of 78 counties affected
• 501 schools affected
• 68 nutrition centers affected
• Three consecutive years of unseasonably severe flooding (908,000 flood-affected population in 2019 and 10,040,000 in 2020)
• 22 counties out of 30 in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile States affected by floods

To reduce the impact of floods on the most vulnerable population, UNICEF invests in flood resilience of local communities and preparedness activities, including pre-positioning of supplies during the dry season when roads remain accessible.  UNICEF and partners continue to respond to the need of children and communities affected by extreme weather conditions and floods, but they face serious funding challenges. More flexible funding is needed to address the needs of children and their families affected by the consequences of climate change and flooding. 

The flooding has severely impacted the displaced population who have already been in vulnerable conditions. As a lead agency, UNHCR worked closely with the Protection Cluster to conduct profiling of persons with specific needs and enhanced community-based protection mechanisms to reach out to some 260,000 affected populations. Working with partners, UNHCR delivered of life-saving core relief items to more than 100,000 individuals.

To find out women, girls, men, and boys experiences, needs and capacities during floods and other climate-related disasters, UN Women partnered with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management (MHADM) and Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare (MGCSW) to conduct a gender analysis in the aftermath of the floods. There is a need for humanitarian actors to commit to collection of sex, age and disability aggregated data throughout the flood response to ensure that all response actions are tailored to the needs of the communities. Including women’s perceptions and traditional knowledge through all the adaptation in disaster risk reduction phases is also important. While the analysis filled some of the data gaps in South Sudan, more gender analysis is needed as inclusive humanitarian action yields better and more effective responses