Pakistani peacekeepers save South Sudan's communities from floods via dykes: UN

Pakistani peacekeepers in South Sudan are now reinforcing hundreds of kilometres of dykes they built some two years ago to save communities in the Unity State from the cascading waters and leaching mud, the UN said.

When the water levels first began rising alarmingly in 2021, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) engineers from Pakistan swiftly led the charge by building hundreds of kilometres of dykes to prevent raging flood waters.

“We were the first responders and constructed some 88 kilometres of dykes during the first phase,” Major Waqas Saeed Khan, the commanding officer of the Pakistani engineers, said.

Major Khan added that when Pakistani engineers arrived in Bentiu (the capital of the Unity state) in 2021, the water level was deep enough, but then it began rising steadily even more to dangerous levels in some locations.

“Our work in past months has mainly been to reinforce dykes. We are transforming them into three-and-a-half meter high walls, which are wide enough for vehicles and people to use as roads,” he stated.

According to Hiroko Hirahara, the UNMISS head, the mission’s goal has been to forge partnerships with all counterparts — humanitarians, local communities, and state authorities — to come up with a consolidated plan to alleviate the widespread suffering of the flood-hit people.

Peacekeepers from Ghana and Mongolia also patrol the dykes continuously to report on and sandbag any breakage or leaks, the press release said.

Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, and the UN Refugee Agency, and UNHCR, have provided thousands of affected civilians with substantial food, water, sanitation and hygiene assistance.