Moving on from there, people from the Akuak community of South Sudan battle daily to keep their heads above the water. Each day, water encroaches their land on a channel off the river Nile. Each day, they rebuild river defenses using clay and papyrus. But increased flooding driven by recent climate change has made their homes even more vulnerable to the flooding. Now, here's a report that tells you more.
After a rare trip to the state capital, Bor, Chief Mckalw Kwani begins the long journey home. Bor is where the Dinka people access essential services and sell fish, but it lies 25 km away. With an outboard motor, the trip takes hours. By canoe alone, it can take up to 5 hours, rowing against the strong Nile current. On the Akuak Islands, families survive almost entirely on fishing. Every day is spent maintaining the fragile islands they call home.
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Their huts sit along one of the countless channels of the Nile inside the vast Sud wetlands. Surrounded by water, grass and papyrus, locally, this flooded land is known as Tosh. Fisherman Anath Manyang is raising the height of his island, a daily exhausting task needed to keep his home above water. He dives into the channel, scoops clay from below, and weaves it with reeds to hold back rising flood waters. **When the water level rises, we use grass and soil in order to build these islands. And this is what we have been doing since I was born. My father and my mother taught me how to build these islands and how to fish.**
Researchers say years of consecutive flooding have permanently altered the landscape, preventing waters from receding during the dry season. While many communities fled with their cattle during floods in 2020, the Akuak stayed. Former student Philip Jothon says life here is difficult but inevitable. **Our life it is. We are just pushing live. I can't not say that life is good and life is bad. You are seeing according how we are staying here. We are suffering and we are not we are and we are not living is because this is our land.**
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South Sudan ranks as the seventh most climate vulnerable country in the world. For Ayan Deng Dwart who has six children, survival means constantly reinforcing the floating platform beneath her home. Despite six consecutive years of catastrophic flooding, some hope still remains. Chief Kwani believes the water may one day recede as it did after the historic floods in 1960s. For now, around 2,000 Akuak people continue to endure on these islands, relying on fishing for survival. [Music] ***END
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