Radio Miraya
2760: Pakistani Peacekeepers Prepare for Flooding in South Sudan's Unity State
what can we expect from this upcoming wet season we're just coming out of the dry season right now so what is what is the forecast basically once we see this region east african region this computer region is under the heavy climate change since last decade and we are seeing high temperature and high rainfall in this area in 2020 a floods we experienced a record rainfall in the area mainly in the equatorial lake region and after that in the south sordana in upcoming season of the 2024 we are expecting that we are going to have we are going to have above normal rainfall mainly we have received advisory from water resource and irrigation department that they are having the equatorial lake states are having above normal rainfall in the region and the lake victoria is filled up to 13 per 6 meter which is the highest recorded level in 128 years so that water which is flowing from lake victoria towards the jubah it is going expected to be here by september and that would be the highest water flow downstream towards the white Nile so where we are living it is in benthio it is a junction of two main rivers barrel rase river and white Nile river so the both catchment areas are expected to have above average rainfall which is likely to be about 700 millimeters up to 1500 millimeters so based on these data available we are expecting that at this time the this area unity state is going to have record floods as compared to the 2020 so you just mentioned we were expected to get between 700 and 1500 millimeters is that right yeah that is the general range some people say that it is around 700 1200 millimeters and generally it is 750 millimeters it depends on the area or reference what did we get in 2023 in 2023 we had a rainfall of 517 millimeter of the rainfall intensity however we are prepared for above 1100 millimeter of the rainfall and we have reconstructed all the dike system again we have visited all the critical areas we are still raising them we have installed escobags at the critical areas and we have identified those areas which are likely to be breached and we have pointed out and highlighted specific heavy engineering equipment for those areas and we have also prepared our dike breach responses in that regard okay and that was last year or this is what you've done for this year we have done this we have done the preparatory things for this year we have done it in the last year dry season so that we can mitigate or any unforeseen events in that let's say in 2024 and so if the water level does go to 1500 what would the response be water level rise will not be abrupt it would be having a clear indication that water level is going to rise and we will have around one two one and a half month of the duration where we can visualize that water level is rising so it will be providing a simple time to extricate all the local community in the at the safe say safe locations safe areas so it would be abrupt it would be giving us the indications and meanwhile with the coordination of the government and local humanitarian organizations and unbased they are conducting joint task force the flood task force reconnaissance nowadays to identify those areas where we can plug in there all the effort and the equipment okay and your your rotation is about to be up so what will the what can the next Pakistani rotation expect when they arrive in bent here as per our release rotation we are confident that we have done enough for the next rotation and we have shared the same advisory same reports with the next rotation of what's the anonymity of four and we have sensitized them regarding the situation so however once they will be landing they would be facing heavy rainfall and the rise in the flood levels for the initial two to three months they would be comfortable with the work we have done and eventually they had to come up with the new innovative ideas to control the flood situation and they would be having a relative easy time in the start but they need to continue it so that they not get any end towards situation so would you say this is upcoming wet season it's gonna be it's gonna be a tough one it it is going to be a tough one but we have prepared for it we foresight based on the directions of our commander we foresighted all the events and as per the climate we were seeing the hot temperatures and we were also visualizing that after hot hot temperatures there is going to be the more rainfall so we and within that process we also received the advisory from the government so it was an indication that what we perceived was is going to come and we are prepared for that so we have been doing a preparation since last six months and as per our expectations just final question not necessarily related to on this we only or we as far as i'm aware we we maintain about 80 kilometers of the dikes at the moment and there's another 40 or 60 40 kilometers all the humanitarian and unmiss they are controlling they have constructed around 125 kilometers of dike and they have re-raised it strength and it up up to around 98 kilometers of the dikes so this is the complete quantum of the effort they have done in the last three years and all the especially iom wfpw is maintaining mainly the MSR's iom is responsible for the dikes for the benthiota town some parts of the book were of conant idp camps and unmiss is unmiss is responsible for the main MSR airstrip and unmiss camp and the critical areas are regarding the supply routes which are available in form of kilo zero to kilo 13 supply route which is starts from benthiobridge till the unity oil field and the second is rapano airstrip these two are very critical in terms of the sustainability of this mission so both oneness and the humanitarians are prepared yeah both humanitarian and unmiss are in coordination they join hand and they have the joint task forces which carry out the assessments and reconnaissance and they come up with the feasibility of the new projects and their device methods so that all the local community and the government including the unmiss can have joint advantage of their resources available thank you very much anything else you'd like to say or i hope and play that upcoming season wet season wouldn't be much harsh and there won't be any untoward situation and we foresee that we are going to pass it very safely even safely thank you