By Hou Akot Hou
Aweil Centre County authorities on Tuesday launched a 3-day campaign to prepare a cemetery to prevent home burial of corpses.
Locals have been burying their deceased loved ones in their homes, especially in the houses within Aweil town.
However, the practice has been criticized by those who want to buy plots from landlords and landladies.
Aweil Centre County Commissioner Peter Natale allotted a piece of land in Nyalath Payam as a grave year to ensure successful burials. The cleaning of the yard has already started,
He said clients who buy plots in Aweil Town have complained that some homes have tombs within the compounds.
Nyatale said this scares the buyers and makes them skeptical about buying the plots for the agreed amount.
“At times people refuse to bury their relatives in the cemetery on the grounds that they don’t want their people taken far from them,” he explained. “This is uncultured as civilization is taking shape.
“Take the corpses to the cemetery to pave the way for good negotiation with the buyers,” Natale urged the locals.
He said that the three-day clean-up campaign for the cemetery at Nyalath is funded by an Islamic organization, which he didn’t name.
The state government is helping to fund the exercise.
One resident who joined the cleaning, Deng Bak, said that he wants the rest of the people who didn’t hear about the initiative to join them.
“Come join us in cleaning up our cemetery that the government has allotted as it is for public use,” he appealed.
“It is part of putting the town in good shape so that we avoid having graveyards on the homestead,” Bak advised.
Mr. Bak says despite the tedious work, he hopes the government will help them get their payback in good faith.