South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Awan Achiek
Floods are looming again in South Sudan and the government has been urged to make haste and relocate people from the areas that are prone to the flooding.
Deng Majok Chol, a candidate for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the Oxford University School of Geography and Environment said the government must revisit and re-plan the resettlement of people from the flood-plains.
“Now with South Sudan today, I challenge us to revisit this close proximity to water and perhaps re-plan our cities because some of those places are right inside floodplain,” Majok said during an alert briefing on Thursday in Juba.
South Sudan is expected to experience the worst floods following rise in water level of the largest Lake in the region, Lake Victoria.
Due to the rise of water level in Jinja dam, neighboring Uganda is expected to release 2,400 cubic meters per second which is equivalent to 800 water tanks per second pouring downstream into South Sudan.
Already in South Sudan, most of the settlements which are affected are in Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Upper Nile, and Warrap, and are already expected to experience unprecedented floods from October to December this year, Majok said.
“The other finding I have found out is that human settlement in these five states particularly is at great proximity to water and to Nile tributaries and to the Sudd,” Majok said.
“Initially these communities keep cattle and they do farming and what do they have to do? They have settled as close as possible to the water point and to the Sudd.”
Majok explained that the settlements in the flood-prone areas occurred primarily because the animals or livestock of the settlers could access drinking water and as well they could get more for domestic use.
“So they have to go in to take showers in the Nile, get fish directly and get water for domestic consumption and take their cattle by the end of the day to drink after grazing in the grassland,” he said.
According to Majok, it is time to revisit these historical backdrops of settlement and resettle them in higher grounds.
“But now South Sudan became autonomous in 2005 and subsequent independence in 2011, so there is a case that I am making, that we as a country now revisit the historical backdrop of settlement,” he said.