Radio Miraya
2812: ROUNDTABLE: Flood emergency response in South Sudan
Hello and welcome to the Roundtable. My name is Sani Martin. We are coming to life from my job at this weekend. Today, our Roundtable discussion is going to be focusing on the impact of floods across the country on the people and their properties. South Sudan faces severe flooding with predictions of above average rainfall and record level floods from March June up to this coming September and continues a heavy rain since May combined with the control water released from Lake Victoria of significantly raised the river level affecting up to 472,000 people nationwide. How is the government together with the humanitarian partners responding to these immediate needs of the flood affected population with life-saving assistance? These are some of the questions which I'll be putting to my two guests here today and they will be responding to all your queries via our SMS number, our social media page and also live on 0912069 or 091206950. We also live on Facebook. You can follow us today and get in touch with us right here. I will be putting all your queries and you have been following throughout the week. If you have been reading the newspapers, listening to the news, at least on a daily basis you hear stories about flood affecting certain areas of this country. I am joined here today by two of my guest honours about Albin Akol Attack, who is the National Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management. You are most welcome to Redimera. Thank you, Zani Martin and thank you. Thank you for listening. I am joined by Anita Kiki, who is the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General Resident Coordinator, humanitarian coordinator. You are most welcome to the programme once again. Thank you. Right away. Let's begin with the Honorable Minister. You are the National Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and you have been touring together with Madam Anita, being assessment raising awareness about flood across the country. First of all, what is the situation like when you talk about flood across the country has of today? Thank you once again, Zani and thank of course the listeners this morning and it is always a privilege being here so that we interact with the public, informing them, also getting their concern. As we said the other day when we were here, when the flood has already been declared or the indicators have already been declared, we came and made the public aware about the risk that is coming. As you said, from the Lake Victoria of Uganda and the above normal rain that is has already been predicted. We tour the state to see the preparedness of the states, the government and the partners that are on the ground there. What I mean, we found that yes, there is a promising preparedness and although there is a lot of challenges. Today we are here to inform the public that what has already been predicted is already taking place. The rain is actually falling heavily and the water that are coming from Uganda are also continue coming. So we are almost at the peak of the flooding. Today all these states are affected almost if central to the criteria is affected. You know, every day you hear some of these. Jungley state is affected and in some areas like which is already affected, people have already been displaced and their cottles in Pangat, people have already been displaced. I wrote, you go up an aisle, my binary is affected, the rain is affected heavily. You go to unity with those of Pangidar. All these areas are affected. You go to war up, toe in north, toe in east, even toe in south, even go real west. All of them are affected. You go to northern Bargazal, you get a will north, a will east, even a will center is affected. Two days back I was with the governor and the governor informed me that the road leading to airport is almost affected. You go to western Bargazal, you get your river county is affected and even in our priorities, the river was not in that, I mean, priority. We thought it is now it is coming. Also similar to the other counties that were not in priority are now affected. We also understand parts of eastern Katoria. Yes, you come to eastern equatorial La Fone. La Fone area is all affected. So I want to say that the almost all the areas or all the state in the republic of South Sudan are affected. Some of areas that we did not even expect that are going to be affected are now affected. Throwing administrative area is also affected. We thought it is in high land, but now some of it are affected. So we want to say that what we have been talking about is almost coming completely. And the number of people are rising every day. What we want to say is that we continue alerting our people. Please, you move away from those areas. We are still saying that our partners and the government as we are already there to respond. The response is taking place. So we are now at the stage of responding to the flood. All right. Yes, Madam Anita, how are the humanitarian partners managing the flood response while also addressing the emergency such as the awareness, air dropping, the roads are almost cut off? So how is this being responded to by the UN agencies together with other partners? We are standing firmly behind the leadership of South Sudan. In the first place we undertook the tour with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, the Minister of Livestock at certain points, the Minister of Water, and also the Commissioner in the TNLA who is responsible for human rights and humanitarian affairs. So the leadership lies squarely with the government and we're trying to come behind to see how we can support. In the first instance, as we toured, we saw examples of where communities themselves had mobilized with local authorities to respond. I remember clearly in Northern Baragazal, young people had come together, they had dug almost two kilometers of dyke. And then with the support of international partners, they were planting rice in the flood waters, which I thought was a very good example. Also as a community in Bohr or Northern Baragazal again, the community or the authorities told us they had managed to raise almost 200 million Sudanese pounds to respond. And we have come behind that as the international community, whether NGOs, UN agencies or the partners who fund us, responding with food, responding with health kits, water purification, tablets, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, anti-venom. This was an interesting one for me. We've seen the number of snake bites go up in the last two weeks alone. We've seen 23 individuals who have been bitten by snakes. Health-wise, over 66 metric tons of health health supplies have been pre positioned in the country, unhast the humanitarian air service has placed a helicopter in Bohr to make sure that we can rapidly reach far-flung areas. So we have been standing behind the government. As the minister said, we projected that some 3.3 million people would be affected. And we would need to target about 2.4 million of them already. We're over 470,000 people who have been directly affected by the floods. And we have not yet reached the peak of the flooding. The peak of the flooding will begin next month. And it's likely that we're going to be responding until the end of the year. Okay. Honorable, we are also receiving reports about emergencies in Fagag, oral county of Zhonglei and Benkyo. Has there been any response to these specific areas? Yes, Madam Kiki said, all these areas, we had already, I mean, prioritized, and we put some support there. And we pre positioned some of the relief there and all the support that is needed because this area, we already anticipated that it will be hit much by the flood. So currently with this information that are coming, the government and the partners are already responding. People have been moved from all Pagak to the new Pagak as the area that these people are displaced because this is where we found the high ground. So people have already been moved. And now people are receiving some of the assistance that they need. What I can say here is that we did not expect this time. We we we expected sometimes to come but it has already come now. So the whatever preparations that are on the ground. Now these people are already being safe. Maybe just a few days or something like that, we may be deciding to go and see what is happening there so that we also observe the magnitude of the of the program. I mean the program. But I want to say that already we are ready with this awareness that we made the authorities on the ground and our partners are ready to respond to those I mean displacement. In other areas, the same thing is happening. Especially rank. This is where we are now facing a lot of difficulties because we have written this and Rufik is there coming from Sudan or coming from Sudan. Not only the normal residents of those area but we have a lot of people influx there. So this is where we have a lot of people that need assistance. Not only because of the impact of luck but the because of the the return from from Sudan. This is where we are now facing a lot of difficulties but of course we are there. The government is there and our partners are there to respond. What we are now trying to say is that the huge gap that we have in terms of resources continues to be there but we are continuing to mobilize more resources which are yet to to come so that we sufficiently respond to all this. What we want to say is that also that the same mobilization have to continue as I said so that we also inform our people to be alert or to be I mean to be ready to move from those areas. The mobilization of resources even within the communities is also taking place. Some of the communities now are taking it up to support themselves. Some of relatives of the communities are also coming in and this is what we have been saying. This is it should not be left for one institution or left for one whatever but it is all I mean approach that we supposed to follow. So we we are witnessing those support and those mobilization from all the citizens of Republic of South Sudan including youth elders are also doing their their job and this is because of the awareness that was made for everybody to know that there is risk that is coming. So we are still facing challenges but we are also ready to respond to those I mean areas that are already being affected. Yes you had early I won't talk about government approving some funding have that money been released to your ministry to support your activities so far. We are yet to receive those money the process have already been started but we know all that we are in economic hardship. Some of the resources now are scarce because of conflict in Sudan but the commitment of the government is there to release this now we are yet to receive whatever we get from the government now so that we help the affected people. So the process are underway but we have not yet received anything from from that funds. Okay it's a matter of money that we understand that the UN humanitarian office have requested so for the release of 20 million US dollars from the Americans fund for immediate response in five counties which are these counties and has the money been released. Yes I'm as as a humanitarian coordinator I'm able to request from OCHA the emergency relief coordinator in New York funding so we have requested this 20 million have been in direct contact with the emergency relief coordinator we're optimistic even if we don't get the full amount we will we will get most of it and we want to target Mayan Deet, Aweel, Nasir, Fanjak and Rob Kona and why those five states immediately this is because when you look at the 2.4 million people that we are targeting where you find 800,000 of them is precisely in these five counties and not only are these individuals going to be impacted by the flooding they're impacted by other vulnerabilities for example they may be food insecure or you could find that individuals are malnourished or struggling to access other basic services so when we analyzed we felt that this is where we should start but this does not mean as the minister has been saying that we don't have a challenge throughout the country and since I have the mic I want to take the opportunity to reinforce a message that the minister has passed. People have to heed the warning and move one ounce of prevention is worth a pound of response as we traveled around this was a message that the government passed um the county commissioners were passing and we want to join them in passing that message if you have the opportunity move to higher ground and another message that was passed by the government is if you're displacing displaced within the county if you cannot displaced within the county displaced within the state if you cannot displace within the state and you're crossing boundary ensure that your leadership the governor knows so that they can be discussion and conflict due to this movement is prevented I think this is an important a critical message that I want to underscore yes um these uh 20 million dollars you have requested from the humanitarian office uh you have mentioned five places to benefit my ended Awil, Nasir, Fangak and Rubicon what are some of these specifics or the items uh this support need at the moment is it non-food items uh food items what will be using this money for in these five places um people who are displaced need everything they need food they need shelter they need water what we plan to do initially is focus on water and sanitation on non-food items and shelter your plastic um sheeting your buckets etc to focus on health and to focus on livelihoods not because everything is not needed but this is a small amount of funding when you look at the overall needs so we're trying to be targeted we're trying to be focused as I said focusing on individuals who are facing multiple crises the minister also said and I said last time where I was here that 2024 is a particular year it's a difficult year we're seeing the impact of Sudan on South Sudan we're seeing the or people are facing the economic crisis we already had a protracted crisis globally the geopolitics is such that getting attention to South Sudan it's not easy we all know where people are focused so we have to be surgical in our precision we have to think hard we have to work closely together to make sure that each dollar we have goes further and again we prevent we mitigate and we are prepared as much as possible recognizing we can never do everything but if we pull together definitely we can make a difference all right yes a honorable minister the executive director of community empowerment for progress recognition sepo edamoni Akane is calling on the government more special the presidency to ensure that this issue of flood is given a very special attention because according to him he says so many people are already being affected and more are going to be affected and he's also calling on the government to reduce the much needed funding uh I get it the seven six million dollars for the flood response uh first of all has per his call do you think it is necessary for the government right now to release even if not all but half of the money to make your work more easier yes uh as I said it is not by his call alone this is the commitment of the government and the commitment of government was very clear when we came up with that a lot from the ministry of water resources and irrigation that was a commitment of the government when it was already detected and all this information were collected from the sources and then alert was actually released that was a commitment from the government the other commitment is when the government engage in all the institutions as I said the other day here all the institutions concerned gathered together with all our partners to sit down and strategize on how we actually formed a response plan and that response plan was stable in the council of ministers and it was approved by the council of ministers together with the contribution of the government all these steps are the commitment of the government the next step is what the minister of finance is now doing is mobilizing the resources so that he release the whatever amount we know the situation of economy of the country and we know the competing priorities that the government is addressing including a requirement of the peace other services delivery of the government so we know this situation this is why we don't expect maybe all the amount will be released on time or on one time what we what we expect is what the minister of finance is now doing is mobilizing whatever resources are available and then he will release this money so that we respond to all these needs this money was meant to cut her for even some of the phase that we already passed the early warning that I've already taken place the information has reached everybody in South Sudan mitigation process some of the dikes were already maintained some were already I mean constructed and now we are almost going to respond maybe next month so all this money was meant for this so the minister of finance would release this money I'm optimistic that the minister will get these funds and he will release it for us so that we continue responding to the meanwhile we are now using whatever we have now with the local authorities with our partners some of the projects that we have been doing some of them now we are now using the existing funds so that we support what is there and it has been taking place some of the dikes have already been repaired so we are now responding at this state with what we have now and this is why we are calling upon the community's contribution the local government contribution is state contribution but I'm thinking just mention that when we were in a we were informed by the government that they have raised that amount and that 200 million SSP according to the governor when we met recently he informed me that he purchased all these items food items and some non food items now they are in process of transporting them to the state so that they support this is an example of state government contribution in this the county contribution is also there the community contribution is there and our partners are on board on all these areas to contribute also which we are really very thankful for that so it is not only anybody to call for us the government has already committed that and we will continue to do our commitment so this flood is it a national disaster or we are yet to call it to deculate a national disaster according to the minister of humanitarian affairs we are gathering some information because for you to to declare it you need to reach some level first the number of people that are affected and the areas that are affected there is a level that we are reaching if we reach then we will declare it we may see if the state certain state is affected much maybe 70 percent is affected then we can even declare that state of emergence in that state so we are coming because the indicators now are showing that we are heading to that area we are going to declare but we want to make sure that what we predicted completely happening but the indicators now are showing that we are going there so maybe in the middle of this month that we are now going to the September we will be having those enough information and enough evidence that yes now we are that is thick and then it will be declared so we are we are going to that but meanwhile we are now even seeing those areas are affected and we are now moving to to respond to it so we are going to that that area from the coordination so yeah office with the state task force for this flood uh uh committee have you received any report of any deaths as a result of this flood so far across the country any report yeah it is not yet clear on this but the impact is already uh reported to us we we are yet to confirm some of the reports on this we we cannot just say and until we confirm those reports but the level of impact is very high okay people have already been chased from their places with their animals and now they are under a bad condition we are now responding to that maybe with our efforts we will make sure that nobody is hurt uh or nobody reached to that nobody dies yes nobody dies okay it's uh you and oja madam kiki you and oja in each month's the humanitarian snapshot for the months of uh july uh they highlighted the humanitarian situation across the country uh in multiple states is worsening day by day and with this severe disruption in delivering of basic uh aids to the vulnerable position or the people across the country what are some of these locations and uh what is the impact of this uh restriction sometimes we understand that some of these uh humanitarian agencies are blocked they are asked to uh wait for some times make calls to juba and uh they stay in one place for some tools to see this so could you tell us more about some of these locations and the impact of these um access restriction in these areas unfortunately yes um we are seeing access restrictions um sometimes for example now with the rains it's due to to weather but at other times it's man made either because of bureaucratic impediments uh for example along some of the rivers the number of checkpoints and so this month alone if i remember correctly they've been 34 incidents just as only in august he um in august yes 34 incidents in august alone sorry in july in july we're in august still we've not moved to september yes 34 incidents in july which is a lot and the the problem is there are restrictions these are restrictions um whether it's due to increased criminality we've talked a lot about the economy and uh people being in dire straits we've seen the number of incidents uh begin to creep up because of that the rivers as the barges are moving along the rivers the number of checkpoints um there bureaucratic impediments harassment detention of humanitarian workers whether they are national or international and my appeal and my my appeal my my my request to all those involved is that this is not the time not now too many people in need too much going on and every time a truck is slowed down every time um a truck is illegally um taxed you're literally taking away assistance from people who desperately need support of the 12 million um a little over 12 million people in south sedan almost nine million now before the floods need some kind of assistance and because combined we did not have enough resources we targeted only six million on top of this we have the economic crisis on top of this and if we have the floods so these impediments are critical and people are trying to do uh good nobody goes into humanitarian work expecting to be detained expecting to even worse so my appeal is that all those involved especially now hit the pause button okay yes honorable minister how is your ministry addressing that yes uh as madam kiki said these are the incidences that we always witness in the remote areas especially uh and uh we sometimes we associate them with the individual act because uh generally as the government of south Sudan we have made it very clear that we must provide humanitarian access unhindered access to those areas that are in need at least this is what we can do so that we we facilitate humanitarian assistance to those people we must protect the humanitarian workers and even assets and items because this assets and items are meant to serve the vulnerable people of south Sudan which are all affected by all this uh I mean I mean factors like climate change and the conflict in Sudan plus here and there conflict that made our people to be vulnerable as madam kiki said yes more than nine million people are affected and they need assistance leave alone this flood so almost everybody in south Sudan needs assistance currently with this current flood we expect everybody to be vulnerable so what we could be doing as people of south Sudan and as the government of south Sudan is to facilitate to make sure that any assistant must go to the needy people because if everybody is need there is those who are in much need so we must facilitate so our commitment has been there uh and this is why when we hear any incident we come in through the law uh the government of states and then goes to local government I witness some of the cases that I intervene directly myself even to go and call the commissioner yeah that county and payam administrator of that uh payam through the government or through the governor just to make sure that the information we want to pass goes to everybody there please you allow humanitarian movement to move freely this is what we have been I did it even some of commissioners in unity state some of commissioners in war up even in eastern equatoria recently when there were some some problems I had to talk directly to those people so that they understand why we were moving also why why we were touring to enlighten people about this flight and check the preparedness one of the message was uh to tell the governor's please you alert your commissioners please let's assist our humanitarian operation in south Sudan I have talked to them in in in in certain I mean issues uh to facilitate especially the commissioners because all these problems are happening in the counties away from the state headquarters so those people have to be informed my inform all the governors that I have visited that this is one of the challenges that is now hindering our good cooperation between us and our partners and I always talked about importance of us coordinating together with our partners the government and the partners because we are doing one thing this will help us passing the information smoothly and also try to identify the priority since we are now at the stage that we have a huge gap and we have a huge needs so we must coordinate together if we coordinate together we will better set our vulnerable people of south Sudan so those messages and those uh intervention I I did it to make sure that we eliminate all the incidences all these incidences so now uh would you intervention for the removal of these illegal checkpoints uh whether along the waterways or on the roads now what is the status have they been all removed the checkpoints of course the government put some checkpoints legally for some purposes but there are also some most yes I know most most of the purpose always is security issues yeah those checkpoints we have no problem about it our problem is that to hinder the excess of the humanitarian convoys that that is our problem if there is a legal check I mean legal checkpoint put by the government for those purposes we don't mind about that what we want is to facilitate the movement of of our goods and our services to people without any when any problem those illegal checkpoints we always report to the to the authorities in the states and into the counties so that they go and see them as madam kiki said we had witnessed a lot of problems along the Nile because the only means for us to transport this support to happen I have an eye region is about river and the river there is a lot of legal checkpoints we have reported it to consent authorities some of them have already intervened even if you if you have been following the governor of apanile one day came to the governor of dongle state on this purpose on the legal checkpoint on the on the river because the governor of apanile when we reported to him he discovered that a lot of checkpoints are at the river Nile that are belonging to the white or over 40 so we had to travel from malachal to boar so that they come and check this and try to harmonize so that they eliminate all the legal checkpoints so that we allow the excess of humanitarian goods to flow on time so the status now I can say that he's reducing but of course those incidences are still there as individual act that the government is continuing actually to put an end to this the what I have discovered is just about awareness some of the areas they don't know what we are doing they don't know so there's a gap in communication yes what impact are they created to what we are doing and to the vulnerable people that are even them are responsible for that some of them they don't know so there is a gap of information this is why one time I even suggested that we call all this stakeholders in one meeting so that we inform each other that please humanitarian operation in South Sudan need this environment okay everybody for forever about it to know this is what I call for it and I'm insisting that if Kim thing comes to us this is what we are now going to do to to resolve that matter but unfortunately we are now being faced from time to time with emergency so we leave those things and then we deal with the emergency until the things is now normalized and then we'll go for that okay and UNH is also reporting that the safety of humanitarian staff is under severe threat due to escalating abduction and violence the report mentions more of a county along the YAM Cairo also YAM already road where some abduction have been done and they also been mining for ramsan has this come to your attention as the minister of humanitarian affairs yes I had about it all those such reports are coming to me because all of them all these incidences are living I mean are leading to vulnerability of people of South Sudan so such reports comes to me right away what we are now witnessing is that those areas are witnessing some of the activities of whole out group from the peace and this is why the leadership is now trying to exact a lot of efforts to bring on what all the whole out group and so that we have a comprehensive peace process in South Sudan this is why you are not seeing people are now negotiating in in irobi to you for inclusion of those elements that now are causing problems in those areas so I'm hearing all these and they are now causing havoc and they are causing displacement even and they are even preventing those who are now voluntary coming back from neighboring countries not not to come is very smoothly we are hearing this so those incidences are going to be addressed with the process of peace comparison process of peace and if that concluded I think that will will will get an end and and we will have I mean those incidences stop okay yes my name kick it with these reports of abduction and threat against your staffs how does it impact your work in terms of reaching out to the vulnerable people like you said nine million people in this country I need of everything right now and these staffs risk their life drive all along from jubah here up to those areas trying to save a life but halfway their life is in danger unfortunately in the worst case scenario it means that we are forced to suspend programs we are forced to scale back even though the need is high so this is why we advocate we try to pass the messages so people understand the full import of these actions for example we have limited resources at the moment for the flooding the flooding is peaking way before we expected it to happen we had projected 20 priority counties with need support right now today 28 counties are already experiencing some form of flooding the minister has spoken about that when we're looking at where we place limited funding and this discussion has happened I've been in the room recently the question has been for certain areas it's insecure even though the needs are high does it make sense to allocate limited resources to those areas because colleagues are concerned concerned about security in those areas concerned that if you put in assistance assistance may not go to the people who need it the most so what can I say in a worst case scenario we're forced to suspend we're forced to scale back we're unable to access people people who desperately need our assistance all right if you have just joined us right now you're listening to the round table my name is Ani Martin and we are coming to life from Juba and in the studio we have a honorable albina call attack the national minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management we have Madam Anita Kekem the deputy special representative of the secretary general resident coordinator humanitarian coordinator and we are discussing about the severe impact of floods across the country and according to the minister estimated projected 3.3 million people expected to be affected and out of these 2.4 million people will need assistance and so far over 470,000 people have been affected and are being assisted and the flood continues to worsen day by day in certain parts of the country and Madam Anita said that they have requested 20 million US dollars from the UN humanitarian office in New York and says in direct contact with the people in New York and this money will be going to five places my ended Awill, Nasir, Fangak, and Rob Kona where they will buy basics for the people who I need right now. The floods also according to the minister the governor of northern Baragua said Awill is also being threatened because the road leading to the airfield in Awill is being threatened by flood so if you want to come that road will very soon be cut off you will not access the area if i've got any question later on you can join us on 091 2069 or 091 2069 50 or you can visit our page Facebook page and drop your comment there as you also live on our Facebook page and I will be putting all your queries right now to my two guests right here my name is Annie Martin you are listening to the roundtable coming to your life from jubba yes honorable minister this flood comes every year for the last four years the areas of up and aeration have been under flood what is the best way forward in addressing the issue of war flood year in year out every year you will continue to ask for money and is there any possibility of addressing these ones and for all I know these are just climate change natural disasters how do we handle this as a government thank you uh sanny martin again this is a good question because in any crisis there's always opportunities as the government and the people of south Sudan we are optimistic that there is also opportunities on this first the water are not fully bad the water safe and help the people livelihood so it is a matter of utilizing them that is that is what we need now as I said before the only way is to innovate and design a way is to control the water because water are life for people wherever they are so it is a matter of controlling them this is what we now need yes the impact of climate change is now hitting us in south Sudan in terms of bringing all this water but if we divine I mean they design a ways of controlling this we will benefit from it one of these is for us to build our dams because dams controls the flows of water especially in the river if we have that dam for long-run solution to this definitely we will be controlling this water we can even utilize this water for irrigation and we will benefit from it in a good way we are now being affected by river because we have no this means of controlling them so in the long run we are going to focus on that the ministry of environment has already planned on those and the minister of water resources have all plan on this even the ministry of energy and dam has also has also the plan for controlling or even benefiting from from water so if we design I mean if we succeed to do this we will be controlling water the other control is the I mean community whatever doing with the water sometimes water I even start in a big hole so that they can be used in dry season so all these attempts are in place for us to control water and benefit from from water the other solution is that if thing comes to us those low land we have a low land in I mean low land areas in south Sudan which are many those low land if things come to us for time being people have to leave those areas if we cannot control living in those area for now for instance in unity state unity state have been in water alone for a long time for a long time all these floods all these floods what have been there they did not go anywhere now for Ben Thieu a group corner they are only surviving because of the dikes that was constructed just to protect the area so this water have been there now it proves that these areas are low land areas and there is no way we can avoid water coming there since we have no means to control water then the next is that people have to go to other areas the problem is that the the the means of livelihood are now difficult nowadays because of the situation our people are in otherwise people would have left those areas and go to high land this is exactly what we are not telling them for the short term solution we are not telling them please leave this area go to high ground we know that that high ground livelihood means are not there there is no water there is this is what we are hearing some of them are now saying how do we go to those high land and we don't know the means of water there so this is one of the we know that there is no water there is no old this but for this time we need to use that evacuation let's go to high ground to avoid this current but for long ground solution this is what I have said we have opportunity to benefit from water to control them for for livelihood activity in South Sudan including I mean agriculture projects that are to be used I mean to use the water irrigation if we control them instead of these water actually destroying our life they will benefit our life because our lands in South Sudan are old agricultural land we can use them and we can but so we have opportunity even in this crisis we can use this only what we need is to have that resources so that we construct those developmental projects and I want to say sign a mat in that since our independent we had only two years of that stability from 2000 and then to 2012 2012 part of 13 and then we had a long conflict this is why we we did not use development I mean we did not use the available resources so that we develop our country if we have that stability and this is why the leadership of the country is focused on bringing back the stability by implementing the peace and try to set peace around the the region so that our people are now all in peaceful coexistence so that we leave the period for development if we have that good time definitely we will turn all these crisis to one opportunity okay yes Madam Kiki has a Montana coordinator in this country and now floods is affecting everybody everywhere in some parts of the country people are being displaced crops are being destroyed are you anticipating some kind of food shortage in these areas next year because now people can no longer calculate people are going to be moving from one place to another how does it put burden on you to support these vulnerable people any plan I think definitely we expect that the numbers will rise already there was an anticipation that we would see the number of people who are food food insecure increase and so with this flooding the economic crisis the burden of individuals crossing the border from Sudan into South Sudan and the need to be able to support them global geopolitics we're not seeing the kind of funding flows we have seen in the past definitely we expect it's going to be a difficult year and this is why I believe that the efforts that are being undertaken at the moment by the leadership in South Sudan being on top of this flooding crisis and bringing us all together behind them is important because no single entity is going to be able to do this alone so how do we move forward and we're hoping that the stability that the minister has talked about ultimately that's the most important thing it is the stability as soon as that is in place then I feel it will be far easier to shift from humanitarian in humanitarian assistance and start looking at the foundational development activities that are required to move South Sudan to the next step so short answer yes it's going to be a difficult year ahead assessments are taking place this is going to call for stability and call for us to work together in partnership to meet the needs of the people or the most vulnerable people of South Sudan and just to take over from why you said earlier on that there is a your political right now crisis are all over the world we have also election coming up in the US South Sudan is also grappling with its own challenges you need a lot of money right now for this country is it easy for the donors right now to turn their attention to this country and what will it take both the government and the partners including you to mobilize the resources to get the money you want it's not going to be easy short answer it isn't there many crisis Sudan is a huge crisis at the moment they have declared famine they're also facing flooding so attention is there there are many crisis on the continent alone car DRC chat they all require attention so therefore here each penny has to go further I think this is why the coordinated approaches the way forward and more importantly stability where we're looking forward to a positive outcome from the political process because at the end of the day once their stability you can begin to look at more than providing humanitarian assistance right if you have just joined us right now you are listening to the round table my name is Sanimatine our line should be open to you shortly forward you can call and ask your question about the impact of flood on the people of South Sudan across the region everybody is affected in one way or they are there right now our line should be open to you why you can call and be part of our round table discussion the round table hello and welcome to the second hour of the round table and we are discussing about the severe impact of floods across the country with a projected number of people who are expected to be affected by this flood to be 3.3 million people and out of these 2.4 million people are expected to be helped and so far over 470 people have been displaced and are being assisted and the UN humanitarian office have requested for 20 million US dollars for immigrants fund to be released immediately and this will go to five counties of my ended Awel Nasir Rubkona and Fargak and this will be used to buy the life saving items for these people who are in need right now and in the studio I have two guests I have Honorable Albin Akola Tak the National Minister of the humanitarian affairs and disaster management Madame Anita Kiki the deputy special representative of the Secretary General, resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator we are discussing about South Sudan is facing severe flooding with the prediction of above average rainfall and record level flood that started in June and will continue up to September and more people are going to be displaced and according to my two guests here if you have just joined us here they have been advising please you better move to areas where you are safe if you are to move from state to state you have to do that in coordination with the local government so that you don't cause problems or in another place so you can call us right now on 091-0629 091-062950 and ask your question right here authorities in Awel I was reporting that the road leading to the airfield in Awel town will be affected by the flood water so flood is real we have heard in dongle in the unity state our panel is in a cotoria wow in western baragazal Awel warrup and so many other places here in central cotoria state also flood is affecting very many people and if you have got any question you put it to our two guests here and I will be reading some of SMS coming in here as we continue with our discussion hello Redimira yeah my name is john wiesen okay john from my unity state go ahead with the question please if there are several io food that they go to the to the people who are there with affected and they have of uh arranging them they are or they they are going to to build the die in those specific place particular the the place that you are mentioning them during the debating okay or building back there is one okay thank you so much john we have got here question is it uh to prioritize giving food for this affected or to build like uh john your question will be answered right here hello Redimira go ahead i prefer my questions and i wrote it down i want to read it please go ahead honorable minister a collator feel me like your ministry is focusing on states states which your attachments go move in this country why there is other states are barely affected by a lot in dulipa county boomers and phyam police villages are clearly affected by a lot some i would use has been collapsed job buildings collapsed and throat sections of the of the of the as been wet away by a lot many cars are intact on on the way in the road linking wow for wheels they are currently intact what uh what coordination are you going to do in this area with the ministry of uh abroad and bridges because there is several kinds these are now it's like near country phyam and what support are you going to do with those people people are now affected there is several languages are collab stop building collab in country phyam and many things okay what are you going to do all right those people affected currently in my area okay thank you so much uh andrea from kangi phyam hello edamirah okay marhabic uh franco men jebel uh one of them today let's go out there uh um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so let's begin we will come to andrea kamilo from kangi about this wow road wow a wheel road that has been cut off and also the question from john is it you want to prioritize supplying food or building like sukura not that i'm in franco yeah sukura my brother franco for a question [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh we we did not focus only on six states this is not a correct statement what we said is that six states are going to be hit much than the other state in fact whole the countries the whole country is going to be affected by a flood but these six states that we have identified are going to be hit much this is what we have said we have also said in our beginning of this talk show that what we predicted is now going beyond there is those areas that we did not predict that are going to be hit much now are going to be hit including u river i mentioned u river by the way my brother andrea i mentioned u river and because i know that there is a report that has come from there these areas are already affected and children and women and all these are being displaced you rightly put it the road linking between wow and a wheel is now under threat some of areas has already been affected you are you are correct and this is why in our coordination within the government we have already informed the minister of roads and bridges and there is already uh state minister of roads and bridges are now monitoring this these are the areas that we have when we were touring we were trying to create awareness on on the risk that is actually affecting all these areas so we we have already made what we can but one thing i want to tell you is that we did not leave any area in south Sudan that is going to be affected even if we know that is going is not going to be affected if it is affected we will come so there is nobody is left out the this is this is the message i want to give you andrea to tell your people that the government and the partners are caring for all citizen of the republic of southern wherever they are there is no discrimination in this process there is nobody is going to be left out what is there is the shortage and huge gap in the resources this is what we are not talking about and we are not trying to prioritize and prioritize so that we we we respond to the i mean uh those areas that are going might to be affected this is what we are not just prioritization but we are not living anybody outside okay my brother john from bento yes from bento we we are not prioritizing one against other these are all what we need first we said we are early warning and mitigation is about diets uh construction of diets or management of diets those areas that can be uh be protected by establishment or construction of dyke we will do it those areas that are not be cannot be i mean protected by dykes this is the people that we are telling them please move away from here so we are prioritizing dykes and we are prioritizing provision of food we are not living anything we are not doing one and living another thank you okay and we have another question here uh okay you want to add something to kick it yes no just some very quick ones to mr andrea i had a professor once who told me that planning a failing to plan is planning to fail so when we got the alert that this year was going to be different to other years because it wasn't just going to be about rainfall it was also going to be about um the rivers over spilling their banks because additional water was going to be released from yuganda and it would impact people the first thing we needed to do was plan and to also recognize that you never get a hundred percent of what you need so you have to have a plan if you don't have a plan you can't even look at adjusting we will just be running helter scalter so the six states and the initial 20 counties were a plan but we will of course adjust as we move along so i i wanted to underscore what the minister said if we find that people are in need within resources we will do our best to respond and then also to mr john on is it dikes or is it food i don't think it's either or uh what comes to mind immediately is bent you um panieja where we've had to look at reinforcing infrastructure we've had to look at clearing culverts at the same time we're looking at responding to the needs of people um how we come together this is why i would say one messaging is important people have to move they've got to help us to help them to coordination is critical we have to think through where does each Sudanese pound go to support south Sudanese yeah where does each south Sudanese pound go to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the most vulnerable some people who can help themselves today is the day will ask you help yourself and allow us to use the meager resources we have for the most vulnerable and last but not least the infrastructure the infrastructure is critical where we find that it has been damaged how do we move in quickly and repair okay and uh we have still more time here you can call us on 091 to 060 79 hello edimera my name is jimmy kata and yanbi okay jimmy from yanbi go ahead yes i have only one question it goes to uh madam mu tiki mhm we have had uh that the international community dual state international organization at the meeting money uh in millions of dollars to south Sudan to respond to the flooding in the country and the national disaster and who are those going to implement uh the project of flooding and also what is the accountability to those who are you know donating the donors who are donating the money how are they going to account for that money is it you know the organization or they're giving money to the government you know that to tackle the flooding in the country all right yes 091 to 060 79 is the number for you to call and you can also text us on our SMS number 091 2177 141 hello hello yes your name okay good luck how is the flood in acobo yeah the flood is uh at the this initial point it is now it's starting because it has been raining for like uh three consecutive weeks in acobo okay and some some people who are in lowland are now trying to evacuate with the ice run okay yeah go ahead in a question we are doing as long the commissioner of acobo as the nominated or selected some uh uh planning uh committee like the responsible committee who are uh centiding the community taking the community all the the problem of uh flooding so that they could be aware of this so coming to the what we are talking about this guerrilla procedure you bringing this topic to be discussed because this is the number one eating issue that is uh packing it anybody is dead across the country and i would like to welcome the girls in this studio and now that i would like to have one question and it goes like this as we are preparing for the flooding because it is not that as you have mentioned some uh is dead that have been affected like uh uh fernile uh eastern equator so what are the the major putting place to make sure that uh those who are already affected should be uh relief from that suffering and the people who are also victim of this flooding before because this flooding will be even bigger than the the the rest of the flooding so what are the major putting place to rescue the lie of people of also done okay thank you so much uh here's a good luck from acobo hello okay garrang garrang man i will [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yes my brother galwalk uh this is why we are here and this is why we have been actually coordinating so that we put in place majors so that we support and try to intervene to those affected people one of these is the role community would have to play uh this is one of the majors of course anybody has to help himself or herself before the government comes in or the partners so the awareness that we have been making as he said now that they have now told people to move from those low land those low land to the higher land this is also one of the majors the other majors of course is try later on if they are affected to be evacuated and help this is the major's that are there but the most important major is what the local authorities are doing as he said that the coalition responsible committee yes the commissioner has now formed that formation came from the awareness that the commissioner has now known that this area is going to be affected as what we have done then he formed that so that the majors are taking place so my brother all these majors we have put in place we have planned and we are now coming to to to implement them so that people of size will done those who are going to be in the risk of what are going to be supported so there is a lot of majors and in faces those majors will take place there is majors as early warning that we have been saying everybody's has now known major I mean a level of mitigation has already taken place as he said that some dikes and even people have been told to move away and the majors have responded later on of course we will try to come in to see those who are affected to support them in terms of provision of food health-wise non-food items we try to provide what we can within our means yes well then kick it there was discussion from Jimmy and I would like to add one more coming from our SMS number here this is coming from my Jack and it says madam kick thank you so much for coming to our studio and explain to us about the efforts being done by you and your partners to support the people of south Sudan my question is I had you earlier on saying that 23 people have been beaten by snakes and this is very dangerous to what extent are you working with other agencies like WHO MSF to provide life saving medicines for these people or to all those counties where the risk of snake bite are very high thank you very much let me start with the last first yes we're very aware as I said coming into work to in south Sudan this year I wasn't aware that snake bites could be such an issue I even saw reports saying that so far they've been about 1,000 overall incidents but that number is not verified the one that's verified is this number of 23 in the last two weeks WHO MSF, UNICEF, ICRC and now I'm going to get into trouble because I've talked about some agencies but not about others but these are the more these are the well-known agencies they are coordinating they are working together they recognize as I mentioned earlier 66 metric tons of supplies have already been pre-positioned to speed up the response and part of that pre-positioning of supplies includes anti-venom precisely to respond to snake bites and this is where the messaging is also important making sure people are aware they know where to go so that they can seek support very quickly the second question I believe it came from Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy was asking about who is implementing an accountability so I think implementation as has been said is across the spectrum immediately it's the community if it's beyond the community it's the county beyond the county it's the governor beyond the governor then it comes to national level and part of our tour was to get this message out and to reinforce a coordinated approach because it was said earlier before you you talked about it Sunny this is after this flooding is coming after four years of consecutive flooding so that means the ground is still wet and on top of it you are putting in more water so it's beyond one institution it's beyond one community it's beyond one individual so it's the NGOs it's a community it's the UN and these flood task force are supposed to bring everyone together to respond all right when it comes to accountability I think that's an important question yeah in my view accountability is to the people that we serve first we said we were there to support them we're accountable to provide the support we said we were going to do and then secondly it's to the people who are providing us the resources to be able to deliver and overall accountability lies with those who govern the country it's with government so accountability is on several levels overall it lies with the government but I think at all levels we have a certain amount of accountability particularly to the people that we serve right if you have just joined us right now you're listening to the roundtable my name is Anni Martin and we are discussing about severe impacts of floods across the country and in the studio I have a Honorable Albin Akola Tak the National Minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management mother Manita Kiki deputy special representative of the executive general resident coordinator humanitarian coordinator we are all looking at efforts by everybody including you to save lives has floods hits most parts of the country and you have heard from her 66 metric tons including anti-venom the response net bugs have been preposition already and the more work is ongoing and also more awareness if you feel like where you are that place is going to be flooded as soon as possible they are saying please you better move with your family and your properties so that you save life as the government will come in later on to support you it's very important for you to move to a higher ground where you will not be affected by the flood and why a system can get you very easily you can also call us on 091 to 060 79 and ask your question uh to my guest right here the minister said also that uh uh there are efforts right now to release the money the 76 million that was approved by the government the minister of finance is working very hard to make sure that the money is released but all the available resources they have right now they are making use of it to save life including local support from uh uh those areas that are affected 091 to 060 79 is the number for you to call and be part of our discussion hello okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay hello yes your name okay good and salad go ahead yeah thank you for your problem for today and then with this town so uh great to the people of South Dakota discussing about the situation which was happening in the country so my my comment on my question is uh now even in juba here there are places whereby when trained there's a flood but there's no one who come and at least see our people are suffering either to see what's happening I want as the minister do they have a team when it's rain either do they have a team that uh when they move around to see what's happening when it's rain either when they're flat to county to know the number of people who are suffering either who are going through a lot when it's rain today I have that team in the ministry one second is uh as you with the money that donate to the country and this is a huge money and we need to see how they'll use the money in the right way so that the people to see this that they have at least they have changed after the that they have suffering from rain from flat and next two careers who come it should not be like that though at least next four two to clear the walls of rain and the water to at least pass in next two careers who come to at least be that there's no more flood again even a children about the water go and direct channels so these are the the things that I need to see after okay because they can't let the money but they'll use the money so I did it should not be good to our people are to the country thank you so much okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay In terms, you were asking about, is there any special consideration for people with special needs who may need to be evacuated? What is being done to assist them? Maybe they can't move, maybe they don't have relatives? Will the government and the partners consider this kind of group to assist them so that they move to higher ground? Maybe vulnerable minister, these two questions from Godun and the one from Terkeka. So, Godun was asking about the issue of Juba. One city rents Juba areas like Jopa, Mio Saba. The parts of Gudeli, they are all flooded. I have a colleague of mine who stays around Mio Saba here. For him to pack his car, he has to pack in one of the petrol station and walk. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, in the water. So, yeah, this is right. This is what I said from the beginning, that central couture is hit too much by this flood. And all of us, we are witnessing this flood from these areas, exactly. And as you said, all of us, we know, in the rainy seasons, some of the areas in Jopa and even Mio Saba are not accessible by the car. Even I know some of my friends that live there, when there is a rainy season, they pack them in petrol stations. And then they guess. In fact, the other day, they then got me in Mio Saba. So, we have to, somebody have to hold my hand to walk from the house, up the main road to Tamakura. It was very, hey, hey, not really system. Exactly. Exactly. This area is a very low land area. And this is why every year, water comes from those areas and then pass those areas. So, we are aware of this. I want to say that the central couture government has already formed a task force. And thus, task force is now moving to assess the areas. They have been in all these areas. And they have already a report on this. And I think what these scholars are saying are already known by that task force. And we are connected with that task force. And in some point, we had some meetings that we had to chair all this information together. And this is what we are now doing. We are working through the task force of those areas. Exactly. Exactly. So, there is activity. I want to tell Gordon that there is activities that are taking place through that task force. And the areas that is mentioning are all assess and the number of people affected are already known. And even the measures that are going to be taken has already been prepared to take place. You said of the resources. You are right. This is why we are looking for these resources so that we use it for this. And for misuse or whatever accountable, as Madame Kiki just said, you people who are going to be safe are the first people to account us. Please look at us if we don't do what you expect. You will account us for those services. Now we are on the process and process of getting the resources. We are even going ahead to mobilize more resources so that we respond. Later on, if we misuse the funds, you are the one to account us. So, I want to assure him that. The resources we are mobilizing are exactly for those services. For vision, we will make sure that we reach out. Again, I want to say the needs is huge and the resources are related. So, we should not expect 100% intervention. This is why we are calling even for them if they are in danger areas. Please help us, help yourself by coming out as you say. This is the only message we continue telling people and we will continue telling them. The only way to reduce this impact on our people livelihood is people to move away from those areas. In the areas of this in Juba here, the drainage system is what is needed. I think the task force is now taking it up. We are even concerned about the airport here. With these task force, we visited the areas, I mean the airport. We discovered that the same issue of drainage is now affecting the airport. At the western side, the western side and the northern side. So, with the help of one of us now, these drainage systems are now being cleared. And once they are cleared now, the water will flow. The same thing, we want to do it in those areas so that we don't keep water. I mean, water comes and goes. But the issue of throwing plastic bottles, which is very common here, which is very common, is now one of the effects. These plastic bottles are closing the drainage system. Police public have to help us. You throw those bottles in a required, I mean in identified places, not anywhere, so that they cannot affect this. Please, let's allow the water to flow to the river. This is the only way we can protect ourselves from this. My brother from Terkekekka, and I know enough to see him on a good lake. You know, enough to the task force, he is also assessing the Terkekekka area. And what you are talking about, the task force, Omar Finol Calamda, who is a massage laboratory, you know, assistant. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. We have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of systems. I think that's precisely the stakeholders that we are trying to target. These are the people we need to find and support. In terms of a prioritization process, we would see people with disabilities, the elderly, women, children, as individuals within the communities and societies that we have to focus on and ensure our move. I just want to state that these are precisely the people we need to be looking at as a community. If you find that we are missing out individuals, report to the NGOs working in your area, most important, report to those who are in charge of governance, your payam, whoever is in charge of the payam, your county commissioner, or even your governor. These are the people we are looking for. And if I can say a word about central equatorial, because I went with the minister, we were with the minister of livestock, and we were also with the RRC chair when we visited the central equatorial governor. We also visited the airport, and to confirm, as a UN, we are supporting to look at the culverts within the airport, making sure that they are clean so that water can flow. We are, it's unmiss, unhouse, and IOM, working with government to assess whether the rainfall and the river, the combination of the two water flows will impact the airport in central equatorial as well. And I know there's already been distribution to vulnerable households in Mandela, in Terracaca, I understand that an assessment should be taking place. And again, we will pass the message that we are getting now, as our colleagues are moving into that area to ensure that the assessment takes place. So, bottom line, most vulnerable are those we're interested in supporting, and central equatorial has a flood task force. They are the ones responsible for coordinating all of us to respond most effectively. Okay, and Malo, Joel, Malo from Waraap is saying that we are being affected here by flood in Waraap state, and it's very bad, it is destroying everything. And it says especially in Gogreal east, Tony east, and parts of Gogreal west are being affected by flood. Unfortunately, everything we are being destroyed from Gennards to Dura, and so on, and this is going to cause a very huge negative impact. When will the assistance begin coming? Yes, vulnerable. Yes, my brother, Malo, you are right, and we were there in Waraap, and we are aware that those areas are already affected. And not only these three counties, but U.S. also which is affected. Even some areas in greater towing are also affected. We had a very good meeting with the task force of the government there, and yesterday I saw the governor is also touring those states to make sure that corporations and assessment has taken place in a good way. Assistance are underway coming, and some of them have already reached. What we need is the movement of people to the high ground where they are going to be assisted. Please, Malo, tell those who you see or if you are affected, move from those areas to high ground. If you go there, definitely you get assisted. Assisted are already there, and they are now being geared to those affected areas and affected people. Mostly those who have already moved to high ground. And the assistance are not only in what you, I mean, let's say food or whatever, but also they have been there in mitigation, and the early warning. Assisted have already been there. So when we reach that area that people are displaced and people have gone to that high ground, assistance will reach them. Again, let me repeat also, we need to mobilize local support first, and then the county support and then state support. And then when it reaches us, we will also provide our support. This is simply because the number is big, number of people that are going to be affected. We have mentioned 3.3 million people, and we are going to target 2.4. But the way we are seeing the number is going to increase because we had already existing problems that affected people. In Warabistek, there is already detainees that have already come there. Even the refugees, some of them are there. So the level of vulnerability is there. If you add this flood, definitely it will go high. So we are expecting more number of people to be affected like this. So we need the efforts of every community, every individual, every authority, all our partners. Let's do our job. Definitely we will reduce this vulnerability on our people. Okay, just a sample of some of the comments coming in here via our Facebook page. Ian Agani, a check is saying that why can the government create projects like building dams, digging canals and so on. And that should restore some water. Don't you have such planning? Our government is best in talking, but no action. And this one is saying that our people are suffering. Our people are suffering. Not learning from the past. Is it impossible for them to leave the area and locate to a higher ground? Please, let us move. This is coming from Meridi. And we don't want to move. Stop staying and say, "I will see first people need to move right now." I urge the people to move. These are some of the questions coming in here. This is from Ben Thieu. James Roy, my joke is saying that it has been heavy done in the United States. That has devastated the entire country. And there are no interventions from both the government and the United States. I pray that God will save us. We don't have much time and let's conclude the honourable between now and next week or the days to come. What can the people expect from the Minister of Human Health and those who have been affected and those who are projected to be affected finally? Yes, finally, what people expect is we continue providing the same information that people have to move. People have to listen to what the authorities on the ground tells them. If you are moving, you move within. If there is a movement, then the dialogue has to take place. This is what we expect. We expect people to have understood the magnitude of the crisis that is coming and then we want them to comply with what we are now saying. They have to expect that the assistance are coming to them through the government, through our partners, are coming to them to support their vulnerability. They have to expect that we will be there to support the vulnerable people. And we will definitely start with those more affected people, especially the vulnerable group, like disabled, like women, like children and elderly. These are the group that we will target. So let's them expect that we are coming. Thank you. Generally, I want to say that please, let's do our role, all of us. And of course, we are appreciative to the understanding from our communities, our local authorities. And we appreciate the role our partners are playing. Okay, including the passion that is with me in the studio, the role she is playing, we really appreciate as the government of South Sudan. And we hope that we will continue in a good way to the extent that we reduce the impact of flat, you know, people. Thank you very much. Yes, Madam Manita. Simple messages from my side. Move, move, move. If you know it's going to cause conflict, please be in touch with the authorities so we can help mitigate them. Secondly, the peak of the flooding begins next month. We need funding urgently, the clusters, the sectors that I worry about the most, our water and sanitation, non-food items and shelter, health care, food security and livelihoods. Even as the floods begin, we will need to continue doing repairs, so infrastructure as well. And last but not least, to thank every single person who's involved in providing response as the international community, NGOs and UN agencies. We stand behind the government, and most importantly, we stand behind the people of South Sudan as these floods peak next month and the month after. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Manita, Kiki, Deputy S.R.G., and the resident coordinator, and also Honorable Albin Akola Tak, the National Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management for taking your time. This weekend to come and talk to the people about the importance of this awareness. Thank you both for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Sunny. And with that, we have come to the end of the roundtable for this week. My name is Sunny Martin, and thank you so much for listening. Stay tuned. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]