![South Sudan FVP Riek Machar talks during a news conference in Khartoum, after meeting with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, September 18, 2015. [Photo by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/South-Sudan-Uganda-Relations-5.jpg?quality=89&ssl=1)
Last June, the ministry of water resources and irrigation announced the arrival of heavy dredging machinery from Egypt in preparation for a government dredging exercise to clear Nam River of weed and mud that has so far been suspended.
President Kiir’s press secretary claimed that the government had not approved the dredging and has nothing it knows regarding the arrival of those machines, sparking public outcry with calls for the government to conduct an evidence-based studies before it go ahead.
“The government has not given any approval yet on clearing Nile water or clearing the plants that are inside the Nile. We have not yet been told about those machines completely,” Ateny said at the time, according to Eye Radio.
“The government wanted to know from the experts, the ecological impact of clearing the Nile because their livelihood depends very much on the swamps that extends to more than thousands of square miles. South Sudan would want to know if the people who depend on these swamps will be affected,” he added.
But speaking during the closing session of the public consultation at Freedom Hall on Thursday, Machar said that the statements coming from the office of the president are not correct and that the government approved the initiative in a council of ministers.
“The rumors that you are hearing that the Presidency or the Office of the President did not know about the dredging, this is false. Because, he the President was the one seating on the Council of Ministers, It wasn’t me who is the next person,” Machar said, according to Eye Radio.
“The resolutions are always told to the public by the spokesperson of the government, that is Michael Makuei, if he is away, then the Minister of Cabinet Affairs. So, we want to correct things, the public may have concerns about the dredging, have we cleared them?” the FVP asked.
