Up the Sobat to Baliet County

On 30 May 2026, a PRDA team travelled along the Sobat River to Baliet County in Upper Nile State, together with colleagues from Christian Aid. The purpose of the journey was to assess food insecurity in the county and to understand the situation facing families affected by flooding.

For much of Baliet, the river is the road. The team made the journey by boat, and the water itself told part of the story: high, heavy with silt, and pressing close against the settlements strung along the bank.

What the river showed

From the water, the pattern was visible before the team ever stepped ashore. Homesteads, cattle and grazing ground sit only a short distance above the waterline, with little separating families and their herds from the river when it rises. Along the bank, the team passed damaged and abandoned structures standing among the thatched homes still in use — a reminder of how much has already been lost and rebuilt in this part of Upper Nile.

Food insecurity and flooding

Flooding and hunger in Baliet are not separate problems. When water covers cropland and grazing areas, harvests fail, livestock weaken, and families lose the very assets they would otherwise sell or eat to get through a lean season. Displacement compounds it: households pushed off their land arrive somewhere new with nothing planted and nothing stored.

The assessment focused on these connected pressures — what households have left to fall back on, how flood-affected families are coping, and where the gaps are most urgent.

What comes next

Findings from the Baliet assessment are being shared with partners to inform planning and response. The visit forms part of PRDA's ongoing work alongside communities in Upper Nile State, carried out in partnership with Christian Aid.