Community-Led Climate Response in Bentiu
Bentiu’s dusty outskirts lit up with colour as community leaders, civil society and state officials planted the first of thousands of seedlings. The event, steered by the Civil Society Coalition on Natural Resource, signals fresh grassroots resolve against intensifying climate threats.
State Ministerial teams from agriculture, education and environment joined internally displaced families who have endured recurrent floods and crop losses. Their presence framed the campaign as both civic duty and official priority.
Unity State’s Six-Year Shock Timeline
Unity State has suffered six straight years of climate shocks, according to CSCNR programme officer Gizam Moses. Overflowing rivers swallowed grazing land, while unpredictable rains crippled harvests, deepening food insecurity and nudging herding communities toward displacement.
Observers note that each flood season erodes traditional coping systems, making adaptation efforts such as large-scale tree planting not merely environmental symbolism but a strategic safeguard for livelihoods.
Women and Schools at Campaign Frontline
Women’s groups, led by market vendors and farmers, pledged to water and fence saplings through the dry season. “Women carry the heaviest burden of lost harvests,” said Tapitha Nyalony Gai of Bentiu Girls Primary School, promising to turn pupils into ‘guardians of green corridors.’
Teachers have woven environmental stewardship into after-school clubs, hoping early lessons will outlive political cycles and donor timelines.
Health Benefits of Reforestation Drive
Flood-linked malaria, cholera and respiratory ailments have strained Bentiu’s clinics, the State Health Ministry reports. Official Chuol Mathuok Piet argues that fruit and shade trees can break mosquito breeding grounds, cool classrooms and diversify diets, turning reforestation into preventive medicine.
Towards Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience
Organizers see the campaign as a launch pad for broader climate financing. They are mapping degraded wetlands, pitching nursery projects to international partners and encouraging agroforestry that pairs sorghum with fast-growing acacia.
Moses insists that community ownership, not external directives, will decide the initiative’s legacy. For now, each seedling pressed into Bentiu’s soil carries a modest but tangible promise of renewal.