The residents of Alur Payam of Jur River County in South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal State are calling on the state government to deliver services to the area.
Several residents said they lack proper roads and communication networks, secondary schools, and clean drinking water.
The calls were made known to the state governor Sarah Cleto who was on her first trip to the area on Tuesday.
Jur River County Commissioner Nicola Thiep said, “What is important to us is connections, the connection of payams, bomas together because sometimes, there are problems and you cannot rush or send a security team to rescue the situation.”
Thiep added, “Many areas here in Alur lack communication networks, the network which is here within Alur cannot connect the entire areas. There are some parts of Alur without a network. We need a network to help us in the issue of security and also in information purposes.”
Mary Gabriel Gok, a resident of Mapel town said they lack secondary schools and school materials for their children.
“We have schools but they don’t have school feeding programs, they don’t have lunch and scholastic materials. Our children travel to Wau for study, if they finish primary, they do go to Wau for secondary school,” she said.
A youth representative in the area, Peter Okello Constantino said Mapel said, “We have so many challenges in Mapel and Alur. Many areas do not have telephone networks. We need the government to provide a good communication network here.”
Okello also called on the national government to provide the people of the area with clean drinking water adding that the residents enjoy free movement between Tonj and Mapel.
For her part, Western Bahr el Ghazal State governor Sarah Cleto pledged to improve the lives of the people in Mapel.
“Today our citizens and all comrades, let’s focus on the future, we want to build schools, we need the quality of our education to be strong, let their primary foundation to be strong such that after 30 years, they should take our footsteps,” she said. “Your requests are very many but the government can provide you with security and the government can bring companies that could bring to you network. All development works are done by us the citizens.”
Governor Cleto further urged the people of Alur to shun child marriage and instead send their daughters to school to get an education that would bring positive change to the area.