How Individual Citizens Can Protect South Sudan’s Environment from Mining and Oil Disasters

May 2, 2020 | Philip Ayuen Dot
View Original

Our planet has been undergoing several challenges in the last Century, when it comes to its environment. As the various reports from the United Nations Environmental Program show, forests have been decimated; wildlife has been dwindling with some going extinct while the greenhouse emissions have contributed greatly to climate change that has been wreaking havoc on the planet. Africa has not been spared and has borne the brunt of the effects of climate change with floods displacing millions, while the irregular rainfalls leave others without any food or source of income.

South Sudan has not been spared. With the country not having known peace for the last 7years, the environment has been neglected and degraded to the extreme. The State of their Environment report, show that deforestation is taking place at a rate of 2%, while some wild animals have had their numbers reduce by over 95%. Human activities such as mining oil haphazardly have led to underground water pollution thus the population there contracting diseases as a result.

In all these, as the world focuses on the Covid 19 pandemic, all is not lost for the country. South Sudan’s population is young. And as shown in countless other countries, the youth have a huge role to play in helping combat climate change, environmental degradation and spearheading environmental conservation and preservation efforts. Here are a few things that the youth can do to avoid Environmental catastrophe, not just in Sudan but Africa as a whole.