The authorities in Unity State have confirmed that four excavators for cleaning River Naam have arrived in Bentiu from Juba.
Peter Bakuony, the press secretary in the governor’s office, said the equipment arrived in Bentiu on Wednesday and will be put to use next week to clear two sections of the River Naam.
“The government of Governor Dr. Joseph Monytuel yesterday (Wednesday) received four excavators for clearing River Naam. These excavators will be mounted on the machines which were brought from Khartoum without excavators,” he explained. “The first phase which consists of the four excavators will start the clearing of the river next week. More equipment is expected to arrive in a few days and the second cleaning phase will also start.”
“The first phase of river cleaning will begin in Bentiu and extend to Bahr el Ghazal and the second will start from Bentiu to Lake No,” Bakuony added.
He said the cleaning of the rivers would improve transportation and livelihoods.
“The clearing is not only for the River Naam but will also involve the White Nile because the purpose is to ease river transportation,” he said. “The cleaning of the White Nile will start from Juba up to Malakal because there is a lot of vegetation blocking movement so the project is bigger than you think.”
In July last year, President Salva Kiir suspended the planned dredging of the River Nile’s tributaries after widespread criticism from the public and water resource and environmental experts.
Dredging of the Nile’s tributaries is considered a threat to the Sudd wetland by environmental experts.
A UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, the Sudd covers an estimated area of 57,000 km making it the largest wetland in Africa and the second largest in the world after Amazon.
President Kiir while suspending the planned dredging of rivers said he decided to allow for environmental studies on the impact of the project on the communities along the rivers and the Sudd’s ecosystem.
There have not been any publicly known studies carried out on the project. However, in October last year, government spokesperson and minister of information Michael Makuei Lueth announced that the cabinet had approved the cleaning and clearing of the rivers for navigation purposes.