Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in South Sudan this year, affecting more than 400,000 people so far, according to United Nations estimates, while the rainy season continues.
The international medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) 8in a press release today said many hardest-hit communities are in Jonglei State, where wetlands and tributaries of the White Nile overflowed as seasonal rains arrived earlier than usual.
MSF says, in August, the floodwaters destroyed a small MSF clinic and many homes in Haat, and MSF was forced to evacuate its staff to Old Fangak, four hours away by motorboat, before returning to the area and conducting mobile clinics.
The leader of MSF's medical team in Old Fangak Emilie Allaire said, "In the region around Haat, we saw catastrophic flooding. The center of the community was flooded several feet deep, forcing all the local population onto the last pieces of land that were not flooded."
She said everything was destroyed. "We went island to island to provide general medical consultations for children and adults," Allaire adds.
"The mobile clinic team carried out 474 medical consultations from August 29 to September 1, and 651 medical consultations from September 17 to 21. The medical needs are extremely high when compared to the weeks before the flooding. The most common conditions include non-bloody diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, malaria, and malnutrition. Canoes are the main means of transportation during flooding, but it would take several days to reach a medical facility this way," the statement reads in part.
According to MSF, the population there lacks sufficient food as the floods made agriculture impossible, cattle are either drowning or dying of hunger due to lack of vegetation that has been covered by floodwaters and people are surviving on fish and water lilies.
Despite the conditions, MSF says it is continuing mobile clinics for children under five years old and pregnant women and administering vaccinations for measles, tetanus, and diphtheria. MSF is also distributing blankets, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils, and other essential supplies.
However, MSF staff warn that the health of the displaced population is likely to deteriorate further without adequate assistance, as the flooding continues.
"The medical service, though we are providing it, is not enough," says Paul Gany Hoth, MSF clinical outreach officer. "They are in the rain in an open space. They need shelters, they need food, they need everything."