The long-awaited construction of Juba’s internal roads has finally kicked off.
On Wednesday, the National Government in collaboration with the Central Equatoria State Government commissioned the construction, upgrade, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of 35 kilometers of internal city roads.
Last week, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit directed immediate repairs on all of Juba City’s major roads.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Central Equatoria State Governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony pledged full support of the works.
He urged the contractors to work with state authorities to secure materials needed for the success of the project.
“The challenge has been that some companies go directly to negotiate with the communities and by-pass authorities either the local government authority or even the state authorities. I want us to work in a coordinated manner so we will be able to address these bottlenecks,” he said.
Governor Adil further said he would work with the contractors to ensure the internal roads are clean. “We have seen our people bringing garbage to the roads, they turn the roads to markets and I want to appeal to all the citizens of Juba to take responsibility for the roads,” he said.
He further directed the mayor of Juba City, the commissioner of Juba County, and directors of Quarter Council to ensure citizens are held responsible for any garbage they dump around their premises.
“Very soon if we find garbage near your shop or residential area, the chairperson of the quarter council, whether elected by brother or sister, we will remove you and replace you with someone who is actively working,” Governor Adil said.
He asked individuals who have erected structures on road reserves to remove them immediately or face demolition without any compensation.
“People are constructing houses on road reserves, anybody who has constructed their shops or anything in the middle of the road from today onwards we are going to demolish the structure without compensating,” he said.
Adil explained that authorities would like to open the roads to connect all blocks for easy access and traffic flow.
Bak Barnaba Chol, National Finance Minister said the roads are also being constructed for easy movements during the upcoming elections.
“We are heading towards the election, even for our government, for our candidate to reach the people, they need roads and that is why we said together with the governor and Minister of Roads and Bridges that it is important to open roads,” Barnaba said.
He pledged accountability and transparency in the payment of all the contractors, urging them to provide quality work.
“This time we will be a bit different, we will make accountability a priority in delivering these roads. From here on, we are going to monitor your progress daily, if you are given this side of Jebel, we will come and see how you have progressed,” Barnaba added.
He said the monitoring team will make frequent follow-ups to make sure the contractors deliver the roads.
“We will also sit down to balance the books to make sure that we have paid you or not, if we have paid you enough then you must deliver and we will make sure that we pay you so that you progress as expected,” Barnaba said.
Barnaba called on the construction firms and other entities to pay taxes so that the government can be able to raise money for development projects.
“Development is very expensive, people find it so easy to blame the Ministry of Finance but believe me, even these contractors, if we look into their books, their payments of taxes will not be as expected,” he said
“If road contractors are not paying taxes, if hotels are not paying taxes, if the aviation industry are not paying enough taxes, if oil companies are not paying enough taxes, if all the banks and business communities are not paying taxes where do you I think I can get money to pay for roads construction? I want everybody to pay taxes so that we can be able to channel this money for development,” he added.
Eng. Kur John Aleu, Project Manager of ARC`s Juba Urban Roads, expressed his firm’s readiness to implement the projects promptly. He said the firm has subcontracted twelve companies to work on the roads.
“ARC is always ready to implement the directive from our national government, we don’t just do this because of business intentions but we take it as part of our national duty. As a national company, we do our work extraordinarily, because we have this nation in our hearts. I want to assure all of you that we are going to implement this project in a timely manner and the objective will be achieved,” he said
He called on the government to ensure regular cash flow so that the project could progress according to the given time frame.
“During implementation of such projects we always have challenges, one of them being the cash flow issue, this has been a serious impediment to the implementation of these projects, but we hope with this high-level involvement the cash flow issue will be addressed,” he said.
He said some communities refuse to allow contractors access to construction materials, yet another challenge to the firms.
“We urge the state government and county authorities to educate our citizens about the need for them to unconditionally avail the local construction materials to our subcontractors,” he said.
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