Vice-President Taban urges resumption of Jonglei Canal, but ‘not on Egyptian interest’

JUBA (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan Vice-President Taban Deng Gai has called for the resumption of construction of Jonglei Canal saying people in Upper Nile State will have to be entirely displaced by floods if an immediate action for the canal’s resumption is not taken.

Vice-President Taban claimed that the floods in Unity State and some parts of Upper Nile is a result of high volume of water being released into the Nile from Lakes Victoria by the Ugandan authorities, a claim Sudans Post could not independently verify.

“We, the people in Bentiu and Fangak, have no place to stay. We may migrate to Eastern Nuer [Eastern bank of White Nile] because we have lost our land to flooding,” VP Deng told a gathering in Juba on Sunday during the lunch of Bangich Raet Foundation.

“The livelihood of people in Bentiu, Fangak, and Bor has been destroyed by recent floods. People are asking who opened this huge volume of water because we never experienced this for decades. Of course, Ugandan and Kenya opened the water, because Kampala was almost submerged because of the rising level of water from Lake Victoria,” he asserted.

The senior government official further said the only solution to the ongoing flooding is the resumption of the Jonglei canal which he said will help in the release of water to downstream country of Egypt where inhabitants need the water for drinking and agricultural products.

“The digging of the Jonglei Canal that was stopped needs to be revised, but should be done under our terms not based on the Egyptian interest. We must study it, and must be acceptable to all South Sudanese,” Taban said.

“For our land not to be submerged by flood, let’s allow this water to flow to those who need it in Egypt,” he added.

The construction of the canal begun in the mid-1950s, but was halted by the SPLA advance in the late 1970s.

Though this is the first time for a senior government official to make remarks regarding the resumption of the project the government of President Kiir signed a number of agreements with Egypt last year including the resumption of the canal and the dredging of the river Nile.