Nam river dredging ‘a popular’ demand of citizens – official

JUBA – A senior official of South Sudan’s ministry of water resources and irrigation has stated that dredging of the Nam River is a popular demand of the people of Unity State as well as of those affected by the devastating floods.

Gattiek Gatkuoth Wichar, a senior member of the ministry of water resources and irrigation and former media aide to late minister Manawa Gatkuoth, made the remarks in an encounter with Sudans Post in Juba this afternoon in which he said the ongoing public consultation being conducted by Juba University is not binding.

“Any public consultation outside Unity State where the dredging is due is not binding and as such should not be taken serious whatsoever. We consider it as waste of time and resources,” he said, referring to the public consultation being conducted at Juba University.

“Dredging is a popular demand of the flood-affected community and it can never be decided by few brain-lazy individuals whose sense of reasoning is washed away by economic constraints in the country,” he added.

He said the government of Unity state will organize a public consultation in Bentiu with aim of taking views of the floods-affected citizens in Bentiu and accused unnamed people who have taken their children to the Untied Kingdom of derailing the lives of the poor in South Sudan.

“Unity State government will organize public consultation in Bentiu and the views of Unity State citizens will be the deciding factor. Those who took their kids to UK should not tell us what to do in our country that would be unwise advice to accept,” he said.

He accused some people of declaring publicly that “the lives of Unity State citizens are less important than protecting Sudd wetland in future but they are not providing any alternative to overcome the flood-affected populace since 2019.”

‘MANIPULATED’

Gattiek further said that the discussion at the University of Juba was manipulated on the directives of Prof. John Akec, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, and said that citizens who were attending the function and support the dredging initiative were not allowed to express their views.

“What happened was not consultation, but rather a manipulation of the public opinion. The administration of University of Juba under Prof. John Akec manipulated the discussion and denied opportunity to pro-dredging elements in the function to defend their position,” he said.