By Taban Henry
The government of the Republic of South Sudan has declared the flood affected areas as national disaster.
This came in the Council of Ministers meeting number 14 after the Minster of Public Service and Human Resource Development briefed the Cabinet on the new salary structure.
Speaking to the media after the Council of Ministers’ meeting on Friday last week, Michael Makuei Lueth who is the Minister of Information, Communication and Postal Services said that the Cabinet has decided that South Sudan should declare all the flooded areas as national disaster.
“What do we do with the floods that are overtaking South Sudan? It is worth mentioning that all the areas of Western Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile are almost all under water and this being the situation then what is the way forward” he questioned.
“So, many people made contributions as the way forward and we made an appeal to the indigenous people of South Sudan, to the Region and to the international community to come to the rescue of this people who are affected by the flood in South Sudan to contribute in any way possible either in kind or in cash,” he said.
Makuei added that some people tried to leave with the water but nevertheless they need other things such as medicine, snakes which are there in the water because most of the people are suffering from snake bites so it is decided that this areas are to be revisited and reports are made.
“On this note also all the governors and the chief administrators of the administrative areas are being directed by the Cabinet to prepare their reports of the impacts of the floods in their areas and present them to the Office of the President. These reports must be made available before the next extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers that will take place on the 14th of this month,” Makuei said.
The Information Minister said that on Wednesday the 14th there will be a meeting so the reports of the governors and the chief administrators of the three areas which are affected by the flood are required to report accordingly so that we can see how best we can address the situation.
“The Council of Ministers also decided on Wednesday the 14th to listen to the minister of environment on what precautions are they making in terms of the floods that is the Minister of Environment, Health and water resources are the people who are very much concern about and they will be making presentations to the cabinet in this extraordinary meeting so that they guide the cabinet on what is to be done,” he explained.