By Philip Buda Ladu
The Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) has drawn crucial resolutions that need to be acted upon by relevant national, state, and local governments concerned with water supply in Juba to address the headache of water supply.
This comes after the august house thoroughly deliberated on the critical issue of water supply and expensive water tariffs around Juba County and the capital city.
In its regular sitting, dated August 28, 2024, the august house, pursuant to regulation 83 of the TNLA Conduct of Business Regulation 2011 (amended 2021), considered information on a matter of urgent public impotence on water supply charges around Juba County.
After extensive debate, the August House then summoned some concerned government officials to brief the parliament on the water supply charges around Juba County.
During Wednesday’s sitting, the minister of water resources and irrigation, the governor of Central Equatoria State, the chief executive officer of South Sudan Urban Water Cooperation, the Juba city council mayor, and the Juba County commissioner appeared before MPs to furnish the house on the water issue.
Governor of Central Equatoria State, H.E. Augustino Jadalla Wani, in his presentation to the House, clarified that the state and local government authorities were not directly responsible for the supply of water in Juba, though they enforced health measures to ensure delivery of clean water.
Juba City Council and Juba County Authorities informed that house that they only levy a yearly charge of 12,000 South Sudanese pounds on the water tankers as license fees for sanitation and hygiene of their trucks and no other tax other than that.
Meanwhile, the minister of water resources and irrigation, Pal Mai Deng, acknowledged that the responsible supply of water in the city and in some state municipalities across the country lies under the South Sudan Urban Water Cooperation, but a lack of funding has made the body unable to live up to its full mandate.
For her part, the Chief Executive Officer of South Sudan Urban Water Cooperation, Yar Paul, noted that the cooperation currently manages three water treatment plants where it sells the water to private tank supplies at a fee of 500 SSP per barrel of water, and the tankers now go and exorbitantly charge the residents on their determined price, not regulated by the authorities.
Therefore MPs made their submissions and queries directed to the officials, and after cross-examining the whole water supply chain, the house identified that the national and state local government authorities have less contribution to the hike in water prices.
Furthermore, the August House observed that the water tanker owners, coupled with unnecessary extortion by traffic police on tankers, are the source of the problem that leads to an increase in water prices, thus some resolutions were drawn to be implemented to see to it that water prices are cut down and regulated.
Also, it was noticed that the urban water cooperation charges 500 South Sudanese Pounds (SSP), to meet the cost of water production, the operational cost including water treatment, electricity, staff payment, and maintenance of access roads to the water filling stations.
The legislators underlined that the water price at the filing station altogether, with charges levied by Juba city council and Juba County authorities, is okay, but when the water leaves the filling stations, that price begins to increase for some obvious reasons, hence the need to address.
Resolutions
First, the minister of interior and the relevant authorities over the police must make sure that this kind of extortion that is not even taxed by traffic police must be stopped immediately. There should be operations deployed along the streets to see that nobody is collecting money from the tankers, which is to resolve the issue of the police.
Second, there should be fuel subsidies specifically for water tankers, which means the Ministry of Water, the relevant committee, and urban water cooperation should work together to address the issue of fuel so that it is not affected by inflation; it has to be subsidized so that the price of water, which is a public utility, can come down.
Third, the stakeholders, including the Ministry of Water Resources, urban water cooperation, Central Equatoria State, Juba City Council, and Juba County, must engage among themselves to ensure that the price of water doesn’t increase.
Fourth, the issue of foreign exchange, which is very important for the procurement of chemicals and paying electricity for water treatment. The relevant central bank committee and the other stakeholders should also engage so that the urban water cooperation is able to access hard currency from the central bank.
The first deputy speaker, Rt. Hon. Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, who chaired the sitting, ruled that the resolutions will be served to the relevant authorities, especially the executives, to act upon them with the oversight of the committee for water, security, public order and that of petroleum at the parliament.
“We hope all the resolutions that have been taken; we will follow up on them through the relevant committees and also the relevant entities so that the prices of water in Juba City and in other towns in South Sudan can be managed,” Oyet stated.
He emphasized that water is life and a very important commodity that is a public good, and it’s also a human right.