The minister of physical infrastructure, lands, housing, and public utilities in Unity State has said that the arrival of machinery from Egypt to dredge and open River Naam was blessed by the national ministry of irrigation and water resources in Juba.
Minister Lam Tungwar Kueiwong confirmed that the machinery arrived in Unity State last week from Egypt via Sudan.
“The project is under the ministry of water and irrigation of the national government in Juba and we, the state, are just beneficiaries because we have had flooding so we are the ones being rescued,” he said. “We do not know when it (work) will start but we have already received the machines based on the directives from the national government.”
He added: “We are the people on the ground but the original owners of the project are the national ministry of water and irrigation.”
Minister Tungwar said River Naam will be opened as soon as the machinery is assembled and castigated those who are against the project including the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Juba, Professor John Akec.
“We have received the machines but I am seeing a lot of things going on in the media including from Professor John Akec and the rest of the people,” he said. “I think all is being misunderstood. It is not Jonglei Canal. These are people with a specific problem within their own locality who want to see how the water can be directed because the whole area (Unity State) has been submerged by water.”
Tungwar said in the past the river was navigable from Khartoum to Malakal and Bentiu through Wangkai to Kuacjok and Wau.
“They used the same River Naam which was open then because whenever you had some reeds, they always cleared it up,” he said. “Those days they used to take people from Wau to Bentiu to Malakal and all that to Juba and everywhere that was connected.”
The minister wondered why people misconstrued and or equated the project to Jonglei Canal and said the intention was to clear vegetation in the river.
“Grass and all these unnecessary stuff that has been clogging the water are the ones that are being removed. Dredging, whereby you dig the ground and remove the soil and try to create a channel within the River Naam cannot be accepted by the locality,” he said. “Also confusing river Naam and Jonglei Canal is also wrong. Ours is River Naam that has a situation where floods have displaced 95 percent of the population.”