Hearing of South Sudan being admitted as a full member of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) is not a big deal, but what counts most is how this trickles into the basket of the common citizens of the nation.

Talking about Lake Victoria, one’s mind jams with the image of The Nile River, its immeasurable, untapped benefits to South Sudan, a country the mighty water body transverse.

Apart from the imaginations remaining imaginable, lack of irrigation schemes, unreliable power, lack of clean and safe water supply systems are constant reminders of how Lack Victoria and her Nile River have not fed us enough.

The numerous blue water tankers with exorbitant prices that fill Juba city streets, and intermittent power cuts, should task us to catch up with other member states in better water management.

How long do we remain watching the Nile River flowing by the courtyard, while others are awash with its riches?

South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, though geographically fall under Lake Victoria and Nile Basin, they least benefit from the natural resources.

Admission of South Sudan into the Lack Victoria Basin Commission should not only end with sharing water management data and receive funding for water projects but utilization of the water resources for our benefits.

Unless citizens are liberated from poverty, realization of section 6 of the Lake Victoria Basin Agreement, will be hard.

How will the community protect and conserve the basin’s ecosystems when firewood, Timber and agricultural land are the lifeline? Wildlife and endangered species, wetlands, and aquatic life pivots for survival.

Our leaders should in the next conference of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission or the Nile River Basin push for equitable utilization of the water resources among member states.

Not in text and words but in hydro-dams, irrigation schemes, urban water systems and use of the water for transport systems, as our shares.