Western Bahr el Ghazal state ministry of roads and bridges has launched a road construction project aimed at tarmacking about 52 kilometers of roads within Wau town.
Muhamaden Abubakar Muhamaden, the state minister said the new project is an initiative from the national government to be implemented by a local construction company African Recourse Cooperation (ARC).
“The project is being supported by the national government coming from the presidency and the national ministry of road and bridges. They offered us 52 kilometers within Wau town, the state capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal state. The national government agreed with national companies particularly ARC mainly, (African Recourse Cooperation), they have signed the contract into law to construct 52 kilometers inside Wau town,” he said.
Abubakar said the 52-kilometer tarmac road will target the main roads within the town.
“The highways within the town including the main road from Wau Airport to John Garang roundabout. These roads sometimes get congested, it will be two ways to reduce traffic jams,” said the minister.
According to him, the ministry is yet to receive details regarding the project, most importantly the cost and time frame.
“As I said, this is a national government-funded project and the agreement was reached in Juba. This morning, I communicated with the projects manager at the national ministry to share the copy of the contract signed between the ministry and the construction company so that I could understand the terms, the amount, and the duration of the project, and what legal procedures to follow once the terms are violated," Abubakar explained. "They said yes, let me give them a chance today and tomorrow to review the contract they have reached with ARC, and then they will send us the contract.”
He revealed that initial works on the roads have started, “We have done general cleaning and we have finished the cleaning. Today we have trucks being dispatched to collect the used materials so that we can move to levelling the road."
Abubakar called on citizens to be keen and raise any concerns during the construction period.
John Modi, a resident of Hai Lokoloko suburb in Wau town said a tarmacked road will improve the delivery of services like health and security.
"We have a lot of accidents here and we need traffic police to be moving around especially when an accident occurs, the culprits get away with it. But the presence of traffic police will deter such accidents."
Natalina Joseph, also a resident of Wau town called on the state government to rebuild the broken bridge in the Lokoloko area.
“Let the government repair the bridge on the Lokoloko road. Sarah (the governor) should look into that issue because when it rains children can easily be carried away by rainwater as they try to cross the bridge," she added.