South Sudan experiences a wide variety of environmental problems, including soil degradation due to the widespread deforestation with consequent loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitats, pollution of rivers and the environmental due to oil drilling in the wetlands, over-exploitation of fisheries and conflicts over diminishing resources such as rangelands and water sources for livestock.

Environmental factors impact on health. There has been an increase in environment-related diseases such as malaria, typhoid and watery diarrhoeal diseases. This situation is largely due to widespread water contamination by urban surface runoff and poor environmental sanitation. This is the result of inadequate disposal of both solid and liquid wastes on open ground.

WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health to develop an environmental health policy for South Sudan. The draft is currently in consultation and will be widely disseminated and implemented once finalized.