Alliance for Land Rights South Sudan (ALRSS), a civil society organization in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, on Thursday handed over 121 land title documents to the vulnerable community in Wau Town.
Speaking during the handing-over ceremony, the organization’s acting director, Moses Ucu Bahrjuok, said it took them four months to process the land titles from the state Ministry for Lands, Housing and Public Utilities after the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) funded the process.
“We are very happy today because we have just handed over 121 land title documents which took us four months to process to the beneficiaries,” he said. “It is one of our mandates as ALRSS to support the vulnerable women, elderly people, and internally displaced people because we know that when one has land in an urban area, they need to have a title for it to protect it.”
Ucu added: “Our message as ALRSS is that the vulnerable should come to our office and present their challenges and we will see how we can help them through our supporters.”
For his part, John Epolito Hassan, a senior land inspector and the chairperson for the housing, lands, and property rights technical working group, urged the beneficiaries to take good care of the land titles they obtained from the organization.
“There were people who were not able to complete the process of acquiring their land titles because they did not know the steps in the ministry, but with the assistance from the organization and local chiefs, we in the ministry managed to help them, and today, it is a historical day that we have handed over land documents to the community in Wau town,” he said.
Epolitio urged the beneficiaries not to sell their land but instead develop them by building houses.
The beneficiaries who received their land titles thanked ALRSS.
“I thank our area chief who told those who failed to process their land titles to come forward for help and I thank this organization (ALRSS) because they managed to process our land documents,” said Awadia Akam Osaman. “We were vulnerable and those with money could just come and take your land from and when you go to court, you cannot win the case due to lack of a title.”
Another beneficiary, Karama Sende Musa, said her family has lived on their land since 2017 without a title and faced a lot of problems and advised residents to process titles for their land.
“Life is not everlasting and if you die, your children will remain and if you do not have land, your children will not be stable,” Sende warned.