Open letter to Governor Dr. Joseph Manytuil to suspend the Naam River Project

By Dak Buoth Riek-Gaak,

June 12, 2022 — In Latin they say Nihil de nobis, Sine nobis, which means ‘‘Nothing about us without us.’’ At the height of the devastative floods in Unity State, I used to communicate with some people there. One day, a friend told me that one of the leading factors of recurring flooding is that, the normal water channels or River Nile attributes through which the water passes are blocked, leading to outflow of water. 

In November, 2020, as the crisis deteriorate; I looked for your phone number and called you at my capacity as the Liech Community Chairman. This was before I sent you a 7-man delegation led by Angelo Gatjang. At that time you were very accommodative of others’ ideas and opinions. Suddenly, you got misled by your political disciples. 

These people must have told you to apply the divisive ‘Northern Liech Agenda of sidelining others from Southern Unity state.’ That is why you are often seen operating between your home County of Mayom and Bentiu town alone. 

Yesterday, I watched and heard the commissioner of Panyijar, Col. Majok Bol Mani begging you to visit Panyijiar. Why should he beg in public for your visit and you are their state’s governor? Your Excellency, if you could remember, my message to you then was to convey our solidarity over the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe that rocked and ruined our state. 

I told you we were with you in spirit; that you have our moral support; that we shall pray that you may get blessings, wisdom and knowledge to rescue our people from this natural calamity. 

Shortly after, I opined an opinion urging you to convene the Unity State stakeholders’ conference on flood where state and non state agencies and state’s elder sons like Dr. Riek Machar, Gen. Taban Deng Gai, Magok Rundial, Kuong Danhier, Tut Gatluak, Gideon Gatpan and the likes can join to share their inputs on how to mitigate the crisis. 

I’m sure if you had done that, today you won’t become a subject of insult and debate over an illegal environmental project. Your political disciples can only think of keeping you in power by hook or crook. But they won’t tell you anything nice to do with power. That’s the reason why we are wailing in your name at home and abroad.  

Your Excellency, why don’t you just unite Unity State instead of engaging in illegalities? I think uniting and treating unity state communities fairly and justly is the priority for now. You can imagine you are facing conspiracy of silence from your own state residents. Only People like Dr. Peter Biar Ajak and Prof. Akech Apuruot from other states have come out to criticize you positively. 

On 1st June, 2021, I saw on social media pictures of the huge convoy coming to Unity State. On 3rd June, David Gai Nguany, state Minister of Information and culture wrote a public note saying and I quote ‘‘the government of unity state has received the machineries from the Republic of Egypt, the purpose of thee machineries is for River Nam dredging as to mitigate the suffering of people of from devastated floods which submerged almost the whole state into water and most importantly would help to facilitate the transportation of goods through river.’’

 Another name of dredging is opening or clearing the weeds or vegetation from the river. From its name, some people may think this project is little and simple. Yes, it could be little and easy to be implemented depending on whether the Egyptian company doing the dredging is qualified to do so.  But there are major concerns which are likely going to hamper or halt the implementation process. 

Take note, the issue here is not that, this dredging project is being done in accordance with the alleged MoU between the two National ministries of South Sudan and Egypt as pointed out by Gattiek Gatkuoth Wichar, Unity State minister of Water Resources and Irrigation in his press statement dated 8th June 2022. 

There are two contentious issues which you people are not taking into consideration. The old principle of ‘‘Nothing about us without us’’ has now become a general slogan which conveys a message that no project and policy should be passed or done without the full and direct participation of the people. 

In other civilized nations or states, numerous legal drafts and national projects have been declared null and void in the constitutional court due to lack of public participation. One would imagine if a law can be pronounced as a nullity, what about a mere unpopular environmental project like Nam River dredging. 

Although South Sudan does not have an effective judiciary to declare any fishy initiative illegal, the court of public opinion is duty bound to bend and bar any unlawful environmental activities from taking effect.  

Of late your Excellency, you have started behaving and acting like the former British governors in Africa. In the colonial era, British colonial governors used not to communicate and consult with their respective area residents. They wrongly believed that oppressed and colonized African people had no legal rights to participation in governance at the time. 

However, the days of the colonial era are long gone. As at now, the people of Unity state and South Sudan as a whole, have constitutional rights to information and participation. 

Under this fundamental human rights of information and public participation, people do not just need to be alert or aware of an already cooked decision, they however needs to be informed and involved at the onset of an idea, so that they can imparts their inputs on any project or policy that is likely to have a present and future impact in their daily lives. 

The people’s right of public participation is provided for in Article 21 of the universal declaration of human rights (UDHR).  In a nutshell, there are two legal issues that will automatically prevent the Nam Dredging Project from being implemented. 

As things stand now, this project is illegal. First, there was no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done where local residents and stakeholders can be involved. The Key elements of EIA are public participation and consultation. Once these elements are absent in an environmental related project then it is null and avoided. 

The importance of EIA is to properly evaluate the possible ecological, economic and social effects with an aim of identifying the possible alternatives. 

Second, the hiring and bringing in of an Egyptian company to conduct the exercise raised an enormous suspicion, because Egypt has a vested interest in the water of the Nile. Over the years, Egyptians continued to threaten people over Nile water.  

Politically, many South Sudanese see this dredging exercise as an attempt by Egyptians to get excessive water flowing toward their country, and because of this legitimate fear, we think they can undertake this dredging in a manner that will leave the River and the residents destroyed. 

Having said that, the bottom-line is that an Environmental Impact Assessment must be done by distinguished environmental experts prior to the commencement of the project in Unity state. I rest my case.

The Writer is the Chairman of Liech Community Association in Kenya; the views expressed here are his own; and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com