South Sudan - Jur River County, Western Bahr el Ghazal State: Alell Thony and Achongchong Flood Assessment - 13 October 2021

Jur River is one of the Western Bahr El Ghazal State Counties. It has six payams namely Kangi, Rocrocdong, Kuajiena, Udici, Marial Baai, and Wau Baai. It has re-ocurring incidents of flooding compared to the other two counties of Wau and Raja. This year the floods has affected six bomas, Alel Thony, Gumel, Berber, Ator, Mabior and Ayom all in Kangi payam and other eleven bomas Achongchong, Wingochok, Adir Ping, Racbak, Pathyic,Wungot, Achongchong old market, Titmarol, Lieth Angui and Manyang all in Marial Bai payam. Jur River County received heavy rainfalls in the last three months of July, August and September 2021, coupled with low land nature, poor drainage channels which leads to water ending up accumulated resulting into flooding. This is not the first time the community experienced such disaster.

In 2014 similar disaster hit these same areas with severe impact on people livelihoods. Currently the flooding has subsided and the people displaced to schools, county quarters and within their relatives begin returning to their residents. No humanitarian responses/assistance given at the moment, communities had developed their own coping mechanisms to survive through sharing the available food with the relatives and neighbors. Others resorted to eating coconut fruits, cereals and pulses including ground nuts for survival. According to the local authorities 14,475 households with 71,000 people are affected in Alel Thony and other locations while in Achonchong and other locations 1,246 households with 7,476 people.
Though the figures reported are exaggerated. According to the local authorities and the affected people they are suffering. Peoples’ livelihoods are affected, business disrupted, crops destroyed and some submerged.
Few seeds left will be consumed within few months. Some houses collapsed on people and one person (male) reported to have died from collapsed house and three other children injured as well. Cases of snake bites have been reported and the victims referred for hospitalization to Kaujok main hospital in Warrap State as it is the nearest hospital to Alel Thony. None of the snake bite victims died. Animals (goats and poultry) have been affected. One household reported at least nine out of ten goats died due to drowning while others became sick due to infections. The main identified prioritized needs in Alel Thony are shelter and non-food items, health and food. The team agreed and recommends an immediate response to Alel Thony. In Achongchong no immediate needs identified. The communities in Achongchong are coping with the situation. The assessment team recommends monitoring of the situation in Achonchong especially the food security and livelihoods situation including health and nutrition. The team assessed 655 households with 3,346 people in Alel Thony and 1,236 households with 6,295 people in Achongchong contrary to the population figures reported by the local authorities. Below is the population figure per boma.