South Sudan’s Lifeline Faces Environmental Threats from Plastic Waste
The Nile River, essential to 11 African nations, is being choked by plastic waste. Community Action Against Plastic Waste in South Sudan is calling for sustainable solutions to save this vital resource.
As dawn breaks over the Nile River, its waters carry a silent plea, echoing the urgent environmental challenge of the 21st century. This second-longest river in the world, vital to 11 African countries including South Sudan, is suffocating under the weight of plastic waste and pollution.
“The river cries out, choked by the very hands it feeds,” said Lueth Reng Lueth, executive director of Community Action Against Plastic Waste South Sudan. “We stand here today to silence that cry, to transform habits, and to introduce sustainable solutions for our people.”
This youth-driven NGO is at the forefront of combating the severe environmental threat facing the Nile. “The Nile is bleeding red — not with blood, but with plastics and waste that suffocate its waters,” Lueth lamented. The situation in Bor, a town reliant on the Nile, is particularly dire.
Environmental experts warn that increasing heat waves could drastically reduce the Nile’s flow by 75%, leading to conflicts over water resources, food insecurity, and heightened health risks from inadequate water supply and sanitation.
“People drink water directly from the Nile or from the streams, resulting in cholera, diarrhea, and other waterborne diseases,” explained Joseph Africano Bartel, South Sudan’s undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Management. He emphasized the urgent need for comprehensive waste management systems.
Lueth suggests that government-facilitated workshops could teach effective waste management, implement policies to discourage single-use plastics, and provide regular waste collection services along the riverbank. “We are supposed to clean the river sides,” said Elijah Mau, a local resident. “It is our lifeline.”
In the long term, Community Action Against Plastic Waste envisions a future with regular waste collection, plastic levies, and fines for littering to enforce environmental awareness. However, these changes are not currently a priority for the government.
“We have joined with the United Nations Environment Program,” said Bartel. “Through the intergovernmental negotiating committee, we’re developing a treaty to ban plastic pollution globally.”
“The story of Bor and the Nile is at a crossroads,” concluded Lueth. The decisions made today will determine whether the river continues to sustain life or becomes a relic of the past.
