The World Food Program (WFP) on Monday handed over the newly rehabilitated Torit-Magwi road to the government of Eastern Equatoria State.
The 48-kilometer road was rehabilitated at the cost of USD 3.95 million donated by the Kingdom of Netherlands and works started in 2019.
In her remarks at the handover ceremony on Monday in Torit, WFP’s head of field office in Torit, Zeneb Habte, said the road will promote better connectivity for rural communities.
“This project is a great example of how WFP is seeking to implement the vision, thanks to the generous contribution of the Kingdom of Netherlands and the close collaboration with the Government of South Sudan,” Habte said. “The Torit-Magwi road project promotes better connectivity for rural communities.
She added: “This, in turn, benefits everyone; the disadvantaged and food-insecure households, youth and women organizations, farmers, consumers, state service providers, traders, transporters, agro-dealers, small contractors and all humanitarian actors.”
The Magwi County Commissioner, David Otto Remson, said the road now helps him easily connect with the state Headquarters as the movement has been eased and travel time reduced.
“I am so proud because I can connect to the state headquarters and it is also so cheaper,” Magwi Commissioner Otto said. “In the past, I used to take six hours from Magwi to Torit, but today I can make it in thirty minutes. Congratulations on that.”
The Eastern Equatoria State roads minister, Jildo Abala Remy, thanked WFP and the Kingdom of Netherlands and appealed for more support towards the rehabilitation of other feeder roads in the state like the Magwi-Lobone, Torit-Katire, Narus-Kuron, Riwoto-Napak, Obira-Chahari, and Romula-Lotome.
For his part, the deputy head of mission at the embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Juba, Jam Huesken, pledged to continue supporting Eastern Equatoria State in several other projects.
“We have already agreed that we have come and come back more often and try and support the government where we can in the integrated development plans which they have,” Huesken pledged. “We all know that this country has a lot of potential for agriculture production and as a family, you cannot eat everything, so you have to find a market and so these roads are so important.”
Governor Louis Lobong Lojore said the rehabilitation of the road faced several challenges otherwise it would have been launched last year.
“This road could have been launched since last year but because of many other challenges, we are launching it or opening it today,” Governor Lobong said. “This road is to connect Torit with Magwi County. We are still not able to access many areas in Eastern Equatoria due to bad roads and whether we have the plans or not, we have to start from somewhere.”
The road is part of the support from the Kingdom of Netherlands and implemented by the World Food Program to ease the movement of people and agricultural produce to markets.