Floods in South Sudan are a frequent occurrence, with the country's location in the Nile River Basin and its low-lying topography making it highly vulnerable to floods. Floods in South Sudan have been recorded since the 1960s, and their impacts have become increasingly severe in recent years due to climate change and poor drainage infrastructure. [1] This article will discuss the history, impacts, solutions, and interventions related to floods in South Sudan.
Floods in South Sudan have been recorded since the 1960s, with the most severe floods occurring in 1963, 1978, 1983, and 1998. In recent years, floods have become more frequent and severe, affecting millions of people and causing significant damage to infrastructure, homes, and crops. [2]
Impacts of Floods in South Sudan
Floods in South Sudan have had severe impacts on the country's population, economy, and infrastructure. The floods have caused displacement, leading to the loss of homes and personal belongings. The displacement has also impacted the education of children, as many schools have been closed due to the floods. [3]
The impacts of floods in South Sudan have also been felt in the country's agriculture sector. Floods have destroyed crops, leading to food shortages and increased food prices. The floods have also impacted livestock, with many animals being swept away by floodwaters. [4]
In addition to the impacts on people and agriculture, floods in South Sudan have also damaged infrastructure. Floods have damaged roads, bridges, and buildings, leading to disruptions in transportation and communication.
Addressing the issue of floods in South Sudan requires a comprehensive approach, including both short-term and long-term solutions. The following are some of the interventions that have been implemented to address the impacts of floods in South Sudan:
Floods in South Sudan have had severe impacts on the country's population, economy, and infrastructure. Addressing the issue of floods requires a comprehensive approach that includes early warning systems, infrastructure improvements, flood-resilient housing, flood mapping, and disaster risk reduction. The government of South Sudan, in partnership with international organizations, has taken steps to address the impacts of floods in the country, but more needs to be done to build resilience and reduce the impact of floods on communities. [5]
A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. Human changes to the environment often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding, for example land use changes such as deforestation and removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls such as with levees, and larger environmental issues such as climate change and sea level rise. In particular climate change's increased rainfall and extreme weather events increases the severity of other causes for flooding, resulting in more intense floods and increased flood risk.
A natural disaster is the highly harmful impact on a society or community following a natural hazard event. Some examples of natural hazard events include: flooding, drought, earthquake, tropical cyclone, lightning, tsunami, volcanic activity, wildfire. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves economic damage in its wake. The severity of the damage depends on the affected population's resilience and on the infrastructure available. Scholars have been saying that the term natural disaster is unsuitable and should be abandoned. Instead, the simpler term disaster could be used, while also specifying the category of hazard. A disaster is a result of a natural or human-made hazard impacting a vulnerable community. It is the combination of the hazard along with exposure of a vulnerable society that results in a disaster.
A humanitarian crisis is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.
Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change. These can be both current or expected impacts. Adaptation aims to moderate or avoid harm for people. It also aims to exploit opportunities. Humans may also intervene to help adjustment for natural systems. There are many adaptation strategies or options.They can help manage impacts and risks to people and nature. We can classify adaptation actions in four ways. These are infrastructural and technological; institutional; behavioural and cultural; and nature-based options.
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) sometimes called disaster risk management (DRM) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them. The most commonly cited definition of disaster risk reduction is one used by UN agencies such as United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): "DRR is aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development".
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and runoff. A distinction is made between structural and non-structural flood control measures. Structural methods physically restrain the flood waters, whereas non-structural methods do not. Building hard infrastructure to prevent flooding, such as flood walls, is effective at managing flooding. However, increased best practice within landscape engineering is to rely more on soft infrastructure and natural systems, such as marshes and flood plains, for handling the increase in water. To prevent or manage coastal flooding, coastal management practices have to handle natural processes like tides but also the human cased sea level rise.
The aim of water security is to make the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems. The second aim is to limit the risks of destructive impacts of water to an acceptable level. These risks include for example too much water (flood), too little water or poor quality (polluted) water. People who live with a high level of water security always have access to "an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production". For example, access to WASH services is one component of water security. Some organizations use the term water security more narrowly for water supply aspects only.
Urban resilience has conventionally been defined as the "measurable ability of any urban system, with its inhabitants, to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, while positively adapting and transforming towards sustainability".
Climate change in Bangladesh is a critical issue as the country is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In the 2020 edition of Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index, it ranked seventh in the list of countries most affected by climate calamities during the period 1999–2018. Bangladesh's vulnerability to climate change impacts is due to a combination of geographical factors, such as its flat, low-lying, and delta-exposed topography, and socio-economic factors, including its high population density, levels of poverty, and dependence on agriculture.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) was created in December 1999 to ensure the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) works to enhance the quality of life for the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change. CDKN does this by combining research, advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. It works in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally.
Climate resilience is defined as the "capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance". This is done by "responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation". The key focus of increasing climate resilience is to reduce the climate vulnerability that communities, states, and countries currently have with regards to the many effects of climate change. Efforts to build climate resilience encompass social, economic, technological, and political strategies that are being implemented at all scales of society. From local community action to global treaties, addressing climate resilience is becoming a priority, although it could be argued that a significant amount of the theory has yet to be translated into practice.
Community resilience is the sustained ability of a community to use available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations. This allows for the adaptation and growth of a community after disaster strikes. Communities that are resilient are able to minimize any disaster, making the return to normal life as effortless as possible. By implementing a community resilience plan, a community can come together and overcome any disaster, while rebuilding physically and economically.
The 2017 Southern Thailand floods are the biggest floods in over 30 years in the southern part of the country during the regional annual monsoon season, which is distinct from other parts of the nation and mirrors that the Malay Peninsula. Between December 2016 and January 2017, Southern Thailand experienced a devastating flood disaster. The bulk of the 15 provinces in Southern Thailand were affected, and this flood event stood out from earlier flood catastrophes due to the massive, long-term damage it produced. Since around December 31, 2016, there have been abnormally significant rains for that time of year. According to the Meteorological Department, thunderstorms and strong winds continued to affect the southern regions. The amount of water in the Nan River, which flows through the Taphan Hin and Bang Mun Nak districts of the capital city of Phichit Province, rose at an alarming rate. This is the second deadly flood in a month in southern Thailand. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) of the Ministry of Interior estimates that there were 95 fatalities and 1,815,618 total victims in the 13 prefectures that were affected by the disaster. 4,314 road segments, 348 bridges, 126 weirs, and 2 sluices were among the destroyed infrastructure items. The extensive area of heavy rain and the simultaneous occurrence of numerous dam breaks severely damaged the local logistics infrastructure. While gum and palm oil help some regions' economies, others, like the extremely underdeveloped territory bordering Malaysia, are socioeconomically unstable. In these situations, the government made efforts in disaster restoration works by utilizing the military in a way that had never before been done for this purpose. Some 120 billion baht in damages are foreseen as of mid-January, much of this due to lost production in agriculture tourism and infrastructure. Rubber supply is particularly impacted. Particularly hard hit are palm and rubber plantations.
Climate change in the Philippines is having serious impacts such as increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, sea level rise, extreme rainfall, resource shortages, and environmental degradation. All of these impacts together have greatly affected the Philippines' agriculture, water, infrastructure, human health, and coastal ecosystems and they are projected to continue having devastating damages to the economy and society of the Philippines.
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) encompasses a broad set of approaches to adapt to climate change. They all involve the management of ecosystems and their services to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to the impacts of climate change. The Convention on Biological Diversity defines EBA as "the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change".
A series of flash floods occurred in Afghanistan beginning in June 2020, with the largest and most impactful flood occurring on 26 August 2020. They were caused by torrential rain in Charikar, Parwan Province. The August floods killed at least 179 people and injured 212 others, and destroyed hundreds of houses. The Ministry of Disaster Management has also reported some casualties and destruction of infrastructure in the provinces of Kapisa, Maidan Wardak, Nangarhar, Panjshir, and Paktia.
In 2016 Pakistan experienced higher rainfall than normal (10-20%), especially in the pre-monsoon season. Heavy monsoon rains are common in the region. This led to multiple periods of flooding, landslides, and damage particularly in Northern Pakistan. The Swat River overflowed and multiple landslides occurred around Pakistan including in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu, and Kashmir.
In early January 2022, the Eastern Cape province in South Africa experienced heavy rain and flooding following a thunderstorm that swept away homes, personal belongings and loved ones. These flash floods have left hundreds homeless, especially in township of Mdantsane which is situated on a floodplain making it more vulnerable to these types of natural disasters. Scientists believe that climate change is responsible for the droughts and floods along the eastern coastline. There were 20 casualties from this disaster, including a police rescue diver who, after saving three lives, got caught on a rope and drowned.
The 2022 Sudan floods saw the figure for flood-affected people in Sudan had exceeded the figure for 2021, rising to 314,500. From 2017 to 2021, there were 388,600 people affected by floods annually.
