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The country of South Sudan has seen unprecedented floods between 2019 and 2021. Over 800,000i people across eight states have been affected, with livelihoods, homes and health facilities being destroyed, and many families being displaced. Given its low-lying regions, Mayendit is one of the worst affected counties in South Sudan. The areas around Rubkuay and Thar Jath payams are particularly prone to flooding, as tributaries of the Nile flow through those parts. Mayendit is also known to be a swampy area, causing its residents to easily be prone to contracting water-borne diseases.
People from such low lying areas, particularly Mayendit south, have been forced to leave their homes and relocate to higher ground, some of them seeking shelter in churches and school buildings if at all, and public spaces. The floods also destroyed farmland and crops, killing livestock, impacting seasonal harvest, and putting at risk the planting cycle.
These floods which are considered to be the worst in six decades, have done immense damage to WASH infrastructure including but not limited to boreholes and latrines. Mayendit has witnessed several submerged homes, and access to clean water has been compromised. Some of the displaced households from Mayendit South have settled in the bordering payams of Dublual, Mirnyal, Rubkuay and even Leer county, where Samaritan’s Purse provides services. The past few years of recurrent floods has reversed all the gains made in the seven years of investment in WASH projects in the county. In fact, out of the 27 boreholes built or rehabilitated by Samaritan’s Purse in 2020-2021, 19 were submerged in floodwaters leaving them contaminated and unsafe for human consumption.
Recently, even the northern part of the county has witnessed the impact of the floods. Payams affected include Dublual, Mirnyal, Rubkuay, Kuok/Thakkar, Tharjiathbor, Jaguar and Tutnyang. With the flood waters receding very slowly, and more rains expected during the rainy season, Samaritan’s Purse has been working with the local community to build and maintain dykes that would provide protection from the flood waters. However, the access from one payam to the next is nil to limited, with our teams having to travel in canoes and on quad bikes to provide services to local communities and IDPs. Food assistance is provided through air drops and transported via canoes. Access to clean water however is still a challenge as most of the hand pumps are either submerged, or the route to them has been blocked or cut off by the water.
In order to address this dire need for useable water, the Samaritan’s Purse WASH team in 2021 conducted a research on flood resilient designs that could potentially mitigate the impact of floods on WASH Infrastructures. Boreholes with an elevated pedestal are better options to explore for flood-prone locations such as Mayendit county. “The idea was born out of the necessity to help salvage the water structures that have been rendered useless by floods,” Nathan Odira, the Area Coordinator for Samaritan’s Purse in Mayendit said. “Similar practices have been witnessed elsewhere in the flood prone regions of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei States,” he added, “They are meant to safeguard the water pump areas in order to enhance access as well as ward off contamination of the same by flood waters.”