By Kei Emmanuel Duku
Deputy Governor of Central Equatoria State, Paulino Lukudu Obede, has criticized Juba Electricity Distribution Company (JEDCO) for failing to deliver on its promises of reliable and affordable electricity to the citizens of Juba.
Lukudu made the remarks during the launch of the $53 million Assist Power Project, co-funded by the World Bank and the Government of Japan, which aims to connect over 50,000 households in Yei and Juba, as well as 90 healthcare facilities and other public institutions across the country.
The Deputy Governor stated that despite allocating land for free to JEDCO, the company has failed to light major streets within the City and charged power consumers a high amount of money.
“Though the state government cooperated with the national government to give land free of charge to JEDCO, this project has not captured the interest of our people. It started with the high tariffs and now our people cannot afford to buy a single electricity this expensive, there are other things related to the beautification of the city, consumers being in private offices or government institutions are no longer using this electricity dispute the fact they the meter in their offices because it is extremely expensively,” stated Lokudu.
He stated that as part of the social cooperate responsibility, JEDCO was supposed to light 5,000 security electric and traffic lights within Juba City and beautify major Roundabouts within the city under the beautification component, and since then JEDCO only managed to connect 1,000 street lights out of the 5,000.
Lokudu further added that the electricity power supplier has gone ahead charging an extra $3 to the Central Equatorial State public institution.
“The beautification and modernization of the city work with electricity but JEDCO has gone ahead even asking the State Government to pay for electricity, while we are aware that there is $3 taken from everybody buying electricity for the street lights. How can our people pay for the street lights when no street lights are working in Juba? We have the street lights, but they are not lighting the street lights. 4,000 of them are not working while we pay for these street lights,” he added.
He noted that for the Assist Project to achieve its intended target and reach the beneficiaries in Yei, Juba, and Upper Nile there is a need for Cooperation between National and local governments by availing the comprehensive master plan so that electric poles do not interfere with water kiosks, internet cables etc.
The $53 million Assist Power Project, now in its second year, is expected to run for five years.
Vice President for Infrastructure Cluster, Taban Deng Gai, emphasized that the project’s expansion to Yei River County in Central Equatoria State will significantly boost the production and processing of Arabica coffee for export, generating revenue for the government and improving farmers’ livelihoods.
The government also plans to import electricity from Uganda and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to neighboring areas of South Sudan, such as Nimule and Kaya, to stimulate industrialization and small-scale industries.
“This has been a thoughtful decision of the government to electrify rural areas and support agriculture so if we extend electricity to Yei throughout the Bahr El-Ghazal Region our Rice farmers in Aweil and Gum Arabic farmers will benefit from the power systems.”