December 1, 2019 (JUBA) – South Sudan is experiencing the devastating effects of heavy floods in most parts of the country due to climate change, Miss Earth South Sudan said.
- Miss Earth South Sudan Asara Bullen Panchol (Earth Tv)
Addressing reporters in Juba last week, Asara Bullen Panchol Sarah decried the high deforestation rate in the young nation.
“If we had many trees, maybe these things would not be happening. This is the effect of climate change,” she said.
According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), nearly a million people have been affected by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding.
Late last month, the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency in the flood-affected areas.
Panchol appealed to the population to plant more trees all over the country.
Meanwhile, Miss Earth South Sudan has vowed to spearhead a campaign aimed at promoting the use of fuel efficiency stoves among citizens to reduce cutting of trees.
South Sudan currently has no forestry policy and its authorities are worried they could lose the country’s tropical forests, unless stringent measures are put in place to curb rampant rates of illegal logging.
In February, an investigative report from Africa Uncensored exposed how the lumbering of teak wood in South Sudan is evidence that the country’s long civil war has turned into a fight for natural resources.
(ST)
Latest Comments & Analysis
Darfuris call for protection in vain 2021-01-21 06:45:46 By Mohamed Osman “It is the same as in the old days,” Adam Rojal, a coordinator in an internally displaced community in Sudan’s Darfur region told me recently, describing ongoing violence from (...)
Invisible female victims of armed militia attacks in Darfur 2021-01-08 15:19:56 By SIHA Network* On October 19th 2020, an armed group burned down the IDP camps of Oum Assal, Babanousa and Om Zegerat in Gerida locality. Gerida locality is composed of a number of villages (...)
Account Inventory for December Revolution in Sudan 2020-12-19 20:34:35 By Mahmoud A. Suleiman This article comes against the backdrop of Sudan's Third Revolution as some like to call it, two years later during which Much has been achieved but risks still remain, (...)
MORE