By Bida Elly David
The national minister of water resources and Irrigation has cautioned South Sudan urban water Corporation against passive inspection of dirty commercial water to the citizens calling them to seriously ensure consumption of sufficient and clean water to set the locals free from diseases.
He said this statement during the launch of Juba main water work project organized by South Sudan urban water Corporation yesterday at their main office. The project was funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the African Development Bank.
The major aim of the project was aimed at providing and distributing safe and clean water to all the citizens living in Juba.
The funded water project was aimed to support more than three Hundred thousand targeted population in 55 Kilometers within five zones in Juba city.
South Sudan over the past years had been benefiting from direct water pipes connected from the Nile to every home with pure and sufficient supply free water contamination. After the Independence as well as the civil war that broke in 2013 and 2016, water services paused and citizens decided to depend much on commercial water fetched by business people.
However, despite the commercial services rendered by the retail water trading team, the health of the beverage was not determined with pure guarantee of purity since two third of the Country’s population depended mostly in its consumption.
Recently citizens raised numerous concerns about the lack of purification of the commercial water by the suppliers pointing out that the water being distributed to areas was not safe and clean for their health. They called on the government to surely impose restrictions on the water supplied to the final consumers by the suppliers especially the foreigners.
Speaking during the event, Pal Mai Deng, the national Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation said that the health of the citizens was a priority to the government since their target as the authority was to ensure affirmative service delivery without negative impact against them being direct beneficiaries.
He urged the management of South Sudan Urban Water Corporation to show their accountability, responsibility and professionalism towards inspecting and supervising water services for the common good of the citizens in the Country.
He appreciated the partners for having invested much of their efforts in supporting the water project to benefit the entire citizens in the city and across the Country.
“You should be professional people in your work to ensure that citizens drink clean water. You are to take the responsibility of supervising any water project or delivery to the citizens by the suppliers to avoid health complication to our citizens. If anything happens against them, it would be our weakness. I appreciate you for your good work towards meeting the need of our people,” he said.
In his part, Michael Lado Allah-Jabu, the mayor of Juba city Council demonstrated his commitment towards working with the project initiators through facilitations of easy work to ensure accomplishment of the project.