By Jessica Woolley, Hayley McKenna and Zoe Wilson
South Sudan's upcoming wet season could force more regions of the country into famine, aid workers have warned.
Oxfam Australia media coordinator Dylan Quinnell said the wet season would negatively impact community health and aid access.
About 40 per cent of the South Sudanese population live in extreme hunger, and large-scale food distribution by aid organisations is set to be more difficult during this time.
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The worst affected by poverty in South Sudan are those who are displaced, including internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees.
Mr Quinnell and an Oxfam delegation visited the South Sudanese town of Nyal recently, which is home to around 50,000 displaced people.
"A lot of people living there fled from the counties north, which are part of the famine zone," he said.
Nyal is experiencing severe food shortage, and without international aid it is believed the community would fall into famine.
Nyal is built on a swamp, known as the sudd, and people trek for up to nine days to the township, which Mr Quinnell described as "relatively safe" from the conflict due to its isolation.
Mr Quinnell said Oxfam was working to “help make the people more resilient” and self-sufficient.
Oxfam's Nyal projects include vegetable garden planting, a canoe voucher system for transport between islands, and providing the locals with fishing kits.
"We give them the tools to do what they are already doing," Mr Quinnell said.
Although these programs improve the sustainability of communities, the wet season will challenge the health of locals in civilian camps, Mr Quinnell says.
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"Civilian camps basically turn into a mud bath, with raw sewage mixed up in the mud, and it becomes impossible to stay clean," he said.
About 217,622 people are seeking shelter in civilian camps run by the United Nations.
“Diseases such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea - which can kill people in days - spread quickly through water flooding, as most water sources become affected,” Mr Quinnell said.
The increase of mosquito-borne diseases including malaria and dengue also become an issue during the rainy season.
South Sudan's medical needs place a strain on healthcare workers and will get worse with climate change, says Melbourne nursing academic Patricia Schwerdtle.
A nursing and midwifery academic at Monash University, Ms Schwerdtle spent nine months in South Sudan through the humanitarian program, Doctors Without Borders, examining the effects of climate change on disease.
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"The impact of climate change on human health is going to be very harsh in developing countries," Ms Schwerdtle said.
"A lot of diseases are climate sensitive, for example, malaria, because the area around the equator where the anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria lives is expanding."
Despite the ongoing conflict, disease and malnutrition experienced in South Sudan, Mr Quinnell said he was surprised at how hopeful the people remain for the future.
"I've been working on this conflict for some years now, so I know a lot of really horrible stories and how hopeless it is in many cases," he said.
"Yet, talking to the people there, they are so amazing, lovely, caring and generous, and still have hope for a future of peace."
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The Australian government has contributed $120 million towards humanitarian assistance in South Sudan and Somalia since 2014.
In 2014 and 2015, about 3600 of the 13,750 places available for Australian immigration to people with humanitarian needs were allocated to African people from South Sudan and Somalia.
In the same period, about 6700 Australian places were given to people from Middle Eastern countries including Iraq, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Australian arrivals via boat accounted for 48.5 per cent of asylum applications in Australia in 2013 and 2014.
