Opinion: Having water is more blessing than having not, though damaging and harmful

By General Stephen Buay Rolnyang,

June 17, 2022 — It is not the first time for the people of Western Upper Nile to have experienced the most severe and deadliest flooding over the past centuries. Floods come as a result of heavy rains and construction of more dams on the river Nile that tamper with the natural flow of Nile water. Floods like this occurred severally in the 20th century when our people had no form of a proper government in place in Southern Sudan, but they managed to survive the floods without being helped out by any government.

Now that we have a shaky government in place, it should be the work of the government to keep the people informed about the impending severe weather or give weather updates to the people to have a plan on where to go if there is a flood and which higher ground to be reached quickly on foot or by vehicles and the shaky government should bear in mind that such floods are inevitable and should have a flood watch mechanism, control methods and management to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters.

Dredging of Nam River!!

The Dredging of Nam River is a different scheme. It has nothing to do with the flood and will never prevent or reduce the seasonal flooding in Western Upper Nile. It is a search for water by the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt to increase the flow of Nile water to have enough water storage in Egypt for agricultural and irrigation schemes and other long-term plans of water reservoirs.

If the government of Egypt were really to help the people of Western Upper Nile, why do they go directly to the river Nam leaving the flood waters affecting the people outside the river.  They should start to use those machines to make drainage and diversion channels and build dikes and levees in the flood-prone areas and move people immediately to the higher grounds. 

By dredging the Nam River, the machines will tamper with the beautiful river landscape and ecosystem such as underwater grasses, papyrus, reeds, weeds etc. that provide natural shelter and food for aquatic wildlife. The Plan of the Egyptian government is to remove and glyphosate all the underwater grasses, sudds, papyrus, reeds among other plants in and along the bank of the river Naam that prevent normal flow of water into the Nile and dredge the river Nam hundreds of meters deep so that all the surrounding swamp fresh waters must flow faster into the river Nam, then into the Nile and with time there will be no water left in the Toch for our livestock except only to get water inside the Nam river which does not even cover the whole land in Western Upper Nile.

If the dredging of the Naam River meant for economic and commercial purposes for boats, barges and steamers to move smoothly from the Nile River down to Masharar in Tonj, Bhar EL Ghazal region like in the past, then the Egyptian government should first destroy the two low-built small bridges by the Sudan government on the river Naam in Bentiu and Wangkei respectively during the war for their war equipment to pass through. The bridges were not built for a long-term project, but can only protect you from being eaten by a crocodile and easy crossing of the people and animals.

It would be acceptable if the Egyptian government could construct two high bridges on the Nam River replacing the current low-built bridges for boats, barges and steamers to pass under the bridges and then they can remove unwanted sudds and other plants in the riverbed that obstruct the smooth marine navigation of boats, barges and steamers and not to dredge the riverbed or tamper with the river bank landscape.

The Egyptian machine operators are hereby warned to stop dredging the river Nam until feasibility study is carried out by the river Nam stakeholders’ local communities that comprise of the people of Guit, Rubkona, Mayom, Tonj North, Gogrial East, Twic East, Abiemnom and Abyei. 

The shaky government of South Sudan should have consulted these local communities who are the stakeholders of river Nam water prior to bringing Egyptian machines for dredging the river, otherwise crocodile is in the river!!!

Thanks for reading.

The author, Gen. Stephen Buay Rolnyang, is the chairman and commander in chief of South Sudan People Movement(SSPM). 

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