A water bottling company in the capital of Jonglei State’s has shut down production and complained that the state government has not allocated enough forex to allow it to continue its operations.
The company stopped functioning due to dollar scarcity, said a business source who feared to be identified for his own safety, adding that the finance ministry had not allocated to them a ‘Letter of Credit’ to allow access to hard currency.
“We were told that the money was brought as LCs, they said the money was given to the business community – but who are the business community and we are the big company in Bor and if we are not given, then who else?” said the source.
Bottled water is now scarce and more expensive at Bor’s Marol market, where now only water imported from Juba is available. A small bottle from Juba is sold for 4 SSP and a large bottle for 8 SSP.
Before the closure of the Sudd factor, a small bottle of 600 milliliters was sold in Bor at 1 SSP and a big one of 5 liters was sold at 25 SSP. Sudd did not produce 1.5 liter bottles as do the Juba companies.