The rehabilitation of dykes has been ongoing in Bor town of Jonglei State since last month as floodwaters continue to gradually rise, officials have said.
Since July last year, most parts of the state capital, Bor have been submerged in floods, caused by heavy rains and the overflow of the River Nile. The floods destroyed homes, displacing thousands of people to the neighboring states.
The state housing and public utilities minister, Elijah Mabior Bol, told Radio Tamazuj that repair works on damaged sections of the 16 kilometers dyke running along the Nile in the state capital is progressing and that by April they will have completed the work.
“Repairing of damaged parts of the old dyke has been going on. And so far, six kilometers of the 16 kilometers long dyke to the west of the town of Bor have been covered. And I think by next week, we will have covered about 19 kilometers,” he explained.
The minister assured Bor residents that the state government is committed to protecting the people and their property from the floods.
“We do not want to see what happened last year recurring. So, we are working hard with our partners to ensure that we protect the town,” he stressed.
Samuel Manyok Arok, the Executive Director of the national organization Flood Management Initiative (FMI) said they have been working on the dyke since January.
“In June, we started responding to the flood situation in Bor, by working with stakeholders on the ground. We're continuing with the work, we started last year. Since January we finished about four kilometers of the broken sections of the dyke, and we hope the work will be completed in about three weeks,” he said.
David Garang Goc of the Jonglei Civil Society Network, warned of more flooding in the coming weeks if the government and its partners failed to fix the dyke as the rains start, urging them to expedite the work.