Radio Miraya
2696: Juba University Public Discussion: South Sudan Lungs, Sustaining the Sudd Under Climate and Socio-Economics Change
Juba University is holding a public discussion on a research paper called South Sudan Lungs sustaining the third under climate and social economics change. The event is organised by the White Nile and Sud Centre. The author/researcher of the paper Deng Majok Chol will be presenting his research findings and possibly solutions to the issues affecting the sad area and the surrounding population that is also affected and also benefits from the large swam. And so Deng Majok Chol is a lead researcher of sustaining the sad under climate and social economics change and at this event as he does his presentation he will be able to also provide the recommended solutions on sustaining the sad. And so he joins us now this morning to give us a sneak peek at what is to be expected during the public lecture. Good morning Deng Majok and thank you for joining me this morning. Good morning, Luther Caden, great to be with you this morning, how are you? I am fine, thank you, I trust you are preparing for your presentation, thank you for making the time on Miraya Breakfast Show. So let's start off with a brief look at what this research is all about and what are some of your findings. Thank you very much for that question, as Louis mentioned I am Deng Majok Chol. This research is all about getting the country the Republic of South Sudan's a sense of direction as far as the sustainable management of water resources. What is also about the exposure of the communities and the population to flood risk we have seen more recently from 2019 to 2022. The research is also about putting a view in to rest number of ideas on proposal that may have come to a discussion including the 2022 events on the issues of dredging, issues of flood risk management, issues of talks about the resumption of Young Lake and Al. And so the research is about engaging the multi-stakeholders including the communities and the population that are in the flood plain. Also the policy makers both at the national level, the state level, county level and the PRAM levels and also practitioners in the areas of flood risk including the NGOs, the national NGOs and the international NGOs and some of the UN agencies that are here across South Sudan and have been helping in the areas of humanitarian emergency as well as flood risk resiliency. So that is what the research is all about, mapping out flood hazard and population exposure and looking into creating resiliency plan for the communities and the population in the flood plain. Okay, thank you for just giving us that brief highlight on what the whole research paper is about and so what exactly were your findings and how can especially the issues that come with the sad area, how the population is affected but also what the population is doing to negatively affect the swamp, what were your findings and what can be done? Yes, thank you very much, the findings and especially there are two phases of these studies. One is on the quantitative aspects of the research and this is dealing with climatic and hydrological modeling where we model how much water we will have and our mud extreme with this flooding get or even drought and so in that regard there is tremendous exposure of population in the South region, we are talking about two million population are simulated to be exposed to flooding in the next decades and there is a trend of increase intensity and increase frequency of this flooding that we will observe in this simulated modeling. On the other hand, we also during the qualitative research in which I engage the communities and population in the upper United States, in the jungler state, in the unity state, in where up the state and in the lake state and part of central Equatoria, there are a number of findings that have really come out as striking as for example, some of the places have been abandoned completely here because they are submerged in the water but there are also some communities and small population of people who have remained in this place, this population have limited opportunity to migrate away from the flood and they are trying to make a living from the very same flood by depending on the resources that comes with flood, live featuring another resources so despite dire human suffering, the local population exhibit resiliency if you will. There is also a finding on the human settlement that are gravely in proximity to the permanent water body. These are communities and settlements right within the flood plain and you can see through the ground observation, I travel from one county to another, I also have aerial view, I was supported by Samaritan parents, an NGO's organization that gave me a plane and I flew low with the group, when were you able to do this, yes my job, I was able to do this on Monday, on Monday this week and we flew here from Jippo on a low altitude 4000 feet over Mangala and we flew over the South extent of a boy town in Young Lake, also Eurotown in Lake State and we headed, we were heading to Miami County in United State where we learned it briefly and so all of these are shown that there are very isolated villages and population that you can see right within the flood plain including some of the islands that could be submerged in the time to the rain, to the rain fall as predicted this year because there's already tremendous water on the, on the, on the scale on the ground. There's also wisdom, the indigenous wisdom that I have discovered from engaging with various community in their leave experience with flooding. We have also, I have also discovered that women are uniquely affected by the impacts of flooding, both in terms of their health, as well as in terms of their responsibilities. And what are these unique effects for women? One of the effect in terms of their health, and this is what I call health hazard, is that women have been affected in terms of infection and some of the women have not been able to conceive as in 2019 as a result of being in the flood. The other, the other unique effect is the responsibility in the house. Some of the men or the husband have gone somewhere far away in an effort to look for, you know, you know, supplies or what just means of ironing and living. And women are left alone in the house, there are times they have to take care of dikes like 24 hours. And this has created psychological, emotional stress on them. And this has translated into physical health hazard. There are also cases where women have just been affected in terms of our close proximity and especially in a very tight space where you bring people into IDP camps and you have this little carrying capacity in this area for youth population in one area. And as a result, health hazard has emerged sickness, diseases, I guess STD, including eight, you know, multiply inside tiny space and women have become victims of those as well. Okay. And so highlighting, looking at all the key findings you've had, the impacts on the population and on the side areas well from the population, what are the sum of the key recommended measures to preserve the swamp, but also to help the population live in a sustainable way where they benefit from the swamp, but also are able to reduce the challenges they face being near the swamp itself. Yeah, Lucy, that is a very good question and one that go to the center of this research. What this scientific inquiry is all about is realizing that the population of the communities in the South region, and the South region is defined here broadly, but it is the state of unity, up Nile, Yongle, Lake State, we're up. And so here the population is in a bind. On one hand, they will like to live with water because they drive their livelihood from the water resources and from the local environment. So they cannot do without the site itself and they cannot do without the local resources that are supported by the site ecosystem. But on the other hand, they have very limited capacity to deal with extreme flooding is which is the one we have seen more recently from 2019 to 2022 and also historically the one that happened in 1960 and more so in 1916 to 17 and so many other extreme events. And so in this way, a number of the recommendation, for example, we have to preserve the site and then send that water pollution is a danger to the site water resources and to the entire ecosystem on pollution can come in many ways. Pollution can come from the way the communities and the population deal with the water resources in their local environment and these pollutions can travel as far as dipping the site. And in terms of the, you know, oil extraction that are happening in happen I and in unity state and part of young lady because these oil extraction, unfortunately is happening right within the sub flood plain and there are danger in realizing that these pollutants can travel from the oil field area if it is not money well and contained well and can pollute the entire site region. Another way that the community could cause a different station out of the site wetland is what you mentioned earlier in your earlier program and that is illegal logging and it is illegal logging for whatever reason either for commercial purposes when it comes to the production of Jericho or for family uses, all of these are contributing to deforestation. I also flew low over my barn area when I was traveling from Malachan to my barn and you can see literally on the plane from the area view the evidence of the deforestation. I was also in my barn on the ground in 2019 and 2020. And I realized that the level they speed with which the trees are cut down is just amazing. And if you create the prostations out of the vegetation of the site you are reducing rainfall because it is this vegetation that produce evapotranspiration and that contribute to the rainfall. And if you continue at this scale and with this speed, with this illegal logging, you are definitely contributing to the destruction of this site itself, then the other approaches that could create deforestation in the site are uncoordinated, small projects and inadvertently create all of this deforestation as well. So one of the recommendations is that if we are going to have any project in the physical infrastructure intervention of a major nature or we are going to have multiple projects in terms of a solution to flood them within the south basin, we ought to approach this from evident base using scientific approach including cutting out environmental social impact assessment as well as feasibility study before embarking on such projects because they can inadvertently create small adaptations and also result into the reduction of this site extent. Today you may realize the contribution of the site resources even in the midst of flooding. The amount of fish that has been really fit out of this flood is remarkable and it goes not only to the population within the site or South Sudan, it has been imported beyond the exported beyond the boat as a South Sudan to DRC, to Uganda and several other countries. It is tremendous resources we have, also the potential for equal tourism with the wildlife that depends on the site, water resources and the floodplain grassland. So any approach that we are going to have will need to consider number of things including the wildlife migration and the wildlife as part of the ecosystem for example. And so I would say that what I recommend for South Sudan is to come back at the country, every branch of the government of South Sudan has a role to play in the importance of the water resources. Their legislation need to come up with sums of their laws that guide and protect the South wetland and also ensure that there is sustainable development among the people and the population that have limited capacity to cope with flooding. In this research I have discovered the importance of understanding the slope of the or the gradient within the site floodplain, not only where the sources of water come but hydraulic, where the physicals of the water, where that the water flow to. This is all important for us to understand before embarking on major physical infrastructure. Okay and thank you for highlighting this as well. Now earlier as you mentioned one key issue we talked about was the deforestation, massive deforestation because of the illegal logging in parts of the country, unregulated logging and talking about the surge as well and why it's important as a natural resource. What is your message to the public and the government on the importance of conservation of these national resources? These natural resources is exactly as I described on the title of my research, the lands of South Sudan and as you know human being in terms of this analogy cannot leave without the function of the lands. In the same way the country cannot leave without the viability of the south basin, the Bahar Qazal river basin, the so bad river basin, all of these come together as the mighty resources for the country and if this is preserved it is going to continue to be the backbone of the country economy to be the backbone of the transformation of the country. In terms of human progression what I have found out lose it from the population that I have engaged across the country is that this population would like to live with this water. They want to live with this water, these water resources. They recognize it's important and they recognize that this fresh water is really very rare. If you look around the world most of the places on the globe are dealing with water stress, limited water, might less about freight water. We are blessed with groundwater and this groundwater is because of the site present because that seasonal flooding in the site is what recharge the groundwater. These water in the site which is in forms of their flood extent have been acting as a purifying mechanism for the pollutant in the water. As you know the population in the sun have not had any great amenities. They don't have any proper light train or toilet. They have open light train and sometimes there are actual open defecation and all that is could cause public health hazards. Potential outbreak of serious waterborne diseases but because of the site purification of these pollutants we have been lucky enough not to witness such a large scale outbreak of waterborne diseases and so this is so important in the sense that other resources cannot be recreated if oil for example or gold or any other minerals are exploited to extinction you can recreate them but we have this water, fresh water here that need to be managed very well because it is what the country is all about. This country is so beautiful. Yes I agree on that. We control the flooding. We manage to control the flooding and ensure the population live on the dry land and at the same time we have sustainable management of these water resources. This is a beautiful country. We can have the human system cool you both with the natural system together hand in hand. Thank you so much for these deep and elaborate explanation of your findings for your report South Sudan lungs sustaining the sad under climate and social economics change. This is just 10 minutes of a three hour lecture that will be taking place later at the University of Juba. So just about the event who will be there and is the public invited to join in and attend? Yes thank you very much Lucy. The Y Nile and the Sun Center have invited the general public to attend this event and it will happen right in the Senate Hall at the University of Jipo and so the public is welcome. We have also reached out to relevant institutions within the national government and the state government. People who are working in the water sector, the environmental arena are actually invited NGOs, both natural NGOs and international NGOs who are also working in the areas of flood race management. We are also in extended invitation to some of the embassies year in Jipo and especially the embassy of the Netherlands, the Norwegian embassy, the American embassy and the rest of course, who have been keen on these flooding and have also been helping in humanitarian emergence situation and have had to grapple with flooding as well. So all of these people have been invited. All right thank you very much for joining us this morning and all the best with with the presentation later.