By Sheila Ponnie

Nearly 1 million people have been displaced across since the inception of devastating flooding catapulted by the impact of climate change across South Sudan. It is arguably the worst natural disaster the country has seen since independence.

Old Fangak County in Jonglei state, remained one of the areas ravaged by violent floodwaters. As many seek refuge in drylands, some are left trapped in their circumstances; people with disabilities form part of this category.

Rout Machot Kuany, a 21-year-old boy living with a disability was confined to his home village in Nyaatuat for two years. The flooding forced him out. With a wheelchair rendered redundant, Machot – born with achondroplasia – wades through muddy floodwaters with his arms.

It’s not just the challenge of mobility bedevilling Machot. Like any other flood-affected victim, he lacks basic necessities like food. There’s no one to provide for except himself. These are challenges he faced in the last two years.

In a conversation with The City Review, Machot emotionally lamented moments when dykes break and a call for urgent drainage of water arises. 

“When the dykes break, every abled person goes out to start rebuilding the broken dykes again and others will start flashing the flooded water out and in that case, I am left behind in the water because I don’t have legs and for that reason, I will just stay inside the water until when they flash all the water out.”

People with disabilities and older people are often among those most adversely affected in emergencies, and at the same time are among those least likely to have access to emergency support.

In Fangak County, people with disabilities were forced to look after themselves due to the lack of notice of oncoming floods.

“I suffer a lot because I don’t have a blanket for covering myself when it is cool and when the rain comes, life becomes even more difficult for me. For instance, when I want to go to Old Fangak to find food, it becomes very difficult for me, moving inside the muddy areas, someone who does not have legs,” he narrated.

People with physical impairments like Kuany have a right to safety and protection in times of disasters. But this was not the case for him and other disabled persons in South Sudan.

Battling snakes

Machot expressed enormous worry over his safety amid prevalent mosquitoes and rampant snake bites. He recalled one particular moment he nearly got bitten by a snake.

“I don’t have mosquito nets that can help me. I am just sleeping on the floor where there are some animals and other things moving at night, especially snakes.

“There was a time in the evening when I was going into my room, I met a snake on the door but I jumped back and then I allowed that snake to move freely until it’s gone and that is how I survived a snake bite and I managed to enter my room,” he said.

He also lists a cocktail of problems that have made life difficult for him; the issue of getting food and lack of means of transportation in case he wants to go to the market.

“Movement is so difficult for me to even when I want to go and beg money from people in the market so that I can get food or even just to go to my neighbour it is difficult because of the water everywhere and nowhere the only means of transport we have is the canon, something I don’t have unless when a friend helps me with his whereby sometimes I will use it to carry some people to where they want to go and I get money like SSP300 for paying something little to eat,” he narrated.

He wished there would be someone who could help him with a canon, food, shelter, clothes, and a mosquito net. Machot’s belongings were all wiped floods.

Life before floods     

Machot narrated that life was better before the floods because he was confined to his wheelchair. But now the wheelchair is not helpful because there are no drylands in Fangak on which it can be rolled.

“My life was good before because the whole area was dry and I was free to move around, go to school and I did not have to ask for someone’s help besides I had my clothes and bedding although I use to sleep on the flow, the flow was very dry I did not have to worry at night when I am sleeping at night but now I sleep with fear of thinking about a snake coming to bite me,” Machot told The City Review through a translator.

“But now even the wild animals like the snakes are now coming to where we the human beings are and they also want a dry and warm place and that worries me, I wish to get a bed,” he lamented.

But it’s not just Machot grappling with flood-related challenges in Fangak County.

In recent weeks, the water levels in Unity State reached an unprecedented height, forcing water’s edge communities to restraint their homes. Among these people was Malek Mary, who has paralyzed two years ago and cannot walk.

With no access to proper transportation, Malek (60) had to be carried on the back by her daughter in order to cross the flooded areas in their quest for safe dry places.

 “When I went to carry my mother, the water levels increased, I carried her and started swimming until we reached Bentiu,” she recalled.

“The challenges now are that we don’t even have shelter and food. The assistance given to us by our government is very little and it’s not enough. We don’t have assistance from anywhere. There is no food, there is no material, there is nothing,” she said.

Malek says the news of floods trigger a sense of fear and uncertainty in her life.

Last month, the government allocated $10 million to cushion the impact of flooding across the country. On Wednesday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Peter Mayen, said budgeting of the fund allocated for expenditure was at its final stage.