Environmental changes in South Sudan are changing the fabric of people’s lives and steering humanitarian operations

Abstract

> “People don’t want to leave their homes but they have to move because of water” > > Murle community representative during a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operational assessment, Lola village, Labarab Payam When our team travelled to Labarab Payam in South Sudan to prepare for a multi-antigen vaccination campaign, we saw how communities had been made to up-end their way of life because of climate change. Environmental changes had forced subsistence farmers to switch their formerly sedentary lifestyle to seasonal movement, in patterns that resembled semi-nomadism. It was March 2024 when Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) arrived and many rivers were bone dry from the record-breaking 43°C heat.1 “We are forced to move from our homes to search for water,” grieved a woman during one of MSF’s operational assessments in Batalu village, Labarab Payam. The skin conditions of tinea capitis and tinea corporis are highly prevalent in the region, along with low breastmilk production, morbidities that are exacerbated by water scarcity. MSF has drilled several boreholes to improve water access,2 countering some of the negative health implications of climate change, but many more are needed. Soaring daytime temperatures are creating additional barriers to healthcare for pregnant women from semi-nomadic pastoralist communities who must travel …