The vice president in charge of the economic cluster has chastised senior environment ministry officials for going against a cabinet resolution approving the dredging and clearance of the Naam River in Unity State.

James Wani Igga was responding to remarks by Africano Batel, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Environment, who said his ministry was not aware or consulted about the clearing of the Naam River which has contributed to flooding and resultant massive displacements in Unity State.  

“We have repeated (the clearing of the river) many times by dates and by numbers and so it should not be a minister to come in public and say this was wrong or that the government is not aware. Which government now? The government is all of us,” Wani charged. “We have to understand this honestly so that we do not contradict ourselves in public. People are asking what kind of cabinet this is. Some are aware, others are not. Maybe some of us were already against it and are coming out but you first need to ask and find out from the ministers concerned, but never contradict.”

“We will never move if we rely on the issue that some few ministers should be opposed because we do things through consensus and then the majority wins as simple as that,” the vice president added.

He said the right thing for the officials who are opposed to the clearing of the river to do was to consult their colleagues before going public with contrary opinions to a cabinet resolution.

“Mr. Africano (undersecretary at the environment ministry) should have gone to Emmanuel Lado, the undersecretary at the ministry of water resources, and asked him what happened. Maybe Africano was absent but his minister should have gone to the minister of water,” Wani counseled. “This is how people do things harmoniously comrades. Please, let us not behave like we do not know what we are doing. We are very mature. We are scientists and we have our rights.”

Last year, the issue of dredging and clearing rivers created a heated public debate when the then minister of water resources and irrigation, Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, who died in Egypt in June 2022, announced that equipment had arrived in Unity State for dredging Naam River.

President Salva Kiir, during his eleventh Independence Day anniversary speech on 9 July 2022, suspended the planned dredging and asked that feasibility studies be carried out by the ministry of environment.

Later in 2022, the cabinet approved the project and said clearance would start immediately to mitigate flooding in Unity State. In April 2023, the Unity State government posted pictures of the clearing machinery which attracted another round of public debate.

During South Sudan’s first-ever National Economic Conference which concluded over the weekend in Juba, Unity State Governor Joseph Monytuil and the University of Juba Vice Chancellor Prof. John Akech had a heated public argument about the clearing of Naam River.

Prof. Akech wondered what interests of the Egypt government and the Unity State government were in the Naam River and warned that it is a lifeline for many South Sudanese

“The process started in Wau and it continued up to the Sudd and people were concerned because there was no clear project, there was no environmental assessment, it was not clear what Egypt wants from it,” he said. “They say it was fighting floods and in the other way, they say it is for transportation.  The ministry of transport does not know about it. If it was fighting floods, the ministry of environment was not aware and it was fully under the ministry of water and irrigation. A lot of equipment was brought in June for massive excavation.”

“There was suspicion that what they need was the channelization and the deepening the rivers and straightening them to allow the fast flow of the water with no thought about the consequences on the storage ability,” Prof. Akech added.

The university don said Governor Monytuil knows that all the 12 million people of South Sudan depend on the Naam River and not only the people of Unity State.

Governor Monytuil responded that the people of Bentiu have suffered enough from flooding and the clearance of the river cannot be delayed any further.

“Our people have been dying for the last four years. We lost very dear lives, they lost their livestock and their livelihoods have totally changed. The population has turned into a vulnerable community relying on humanitarian assistance because of the floods,” he said. “We thought the suffering of the people of Unity State would concern the other parts of the country but we have been seeing a lot of insulting comments on social media and thought when one part of this country is suffering, the other parts would be very much concerned.”

“The lives of the people of Unity State matter a lot professor (Akec) and if clearance is going to save the lives of our people, let it be,” Governor Monytuil added.

Vice President Wani sided with Governor Monytuil and asked those opposed to the clearance of the river to desist.

“Let us feel the suffering of our people. Historically, this dredging was going on and the fear thrown to us by the scientists may be in good faith but none of them existed. Our people have continued to live so why are we scared today?” he said. “Let them give us this chance so we can make an improvement and let them not scar us off. Otherwise, are we trying to say that the British did not have scientists?”

Wani however said that if the water ministry did not consult or liaise with their counterparts at the environment ministry before the clearing of the river, then it was wrong.

“On the issue of cooperation, I admit that the issue was blown up by the ministry of environment. But I agree with you Brother Africano in that if it is true that your ministry was not consulted by the ministry of water, then that was unfortunate and wrong,” Wani said. “But there is one thing which I know and that is that all resolutions, before they go to the cabinet, first come to the cluster. The late Minister Manawa went to the governance cluster and also came to the economic cluster and we digested a lot of papers and data and it was simply scientific. Maybe he did not have time to tell people that I also used scientists.”

The vice president said his cluster was satisfied with the information and took it to the cabinet which in turn approved it.

“So, any minister trying to jump out of a resolution of the council of ministers is wrong because according to our regulations as ministers, even if you are against it in the hall, by the time you come out, you must stand and defend that resolution,” Wani concluded.