| On a recent visit to Yambio for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement presentation, an UNMIS Public Information team was in for a surprise. Its main audience — heads of government departments, chiefs and religious leaders — were missing! On enquiring, they discovered that all government civil servants were repairing the nearby Maridi-Yambio-Nzara road.
The team learned that all schools and government offices in Yambio, the capital of Western Equatoria state, had been partially shut down to focus attention on the road, made impassible by rains (in all of Southern Sudan, including the capital Juba, roads are gravel or dirt).
Later, the team saw hundreds of men, women and school children busy helping with the road repair. Elinana Joshua, the local government Inspector in Yambio, said some 400 people were helping out.
“It was the Deputy Governor of Western Equatoria, Joseph Ngere Paciko, who first mobilized the community (to repair the road) at a public rally in Yambio last month,” Mr. Joshua explained. While working people and the business community were asked to help financially, the unemployed were to supply labor. Each ministry was given a separate section to work on.
The road work — mainly draining water from ditches and filling them with stone and sand — will take several weeks to finish. Justin Rotto, a Yambio local who spent an hour working on the road, said “No one is spared, whether truck drivers, bus passengers or cyclists. They all have to chip in with cash or labour.”
The State Relief Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC) is also supporting the repair by providing food for the workers.
The road, connecting Yambio with Uganda through Yei and Maridi, runs nearly 300 kilometres, passing through several counties. For Western Equatoria and several other states in Southern Sudan, the road is a lifeline for transporting food and other provisions from Uganda. |
Maridi-Yambio-Nzara road after the rains.
Photo ©Timothy Mckulka
In the road’s current state, a truck trip from Yei to Yambio can take up to a week. The long journey encourages traders to up prices for goods, making them unaffordable for ordinary people. When the road is fixed, it will not only shorten travel time but bring down inflated prices.
The UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) recently finished a road survey — in preparation for repair work — that took seven months. “It was the long delay that spurred the community to pick up the shovels,” Inspector Joshua said.
Terah Yaroch, of UNOPS, explained that the delay could not be helped. “We have to abide by the rules and procedures. Moreover, we have had to consider security concerns because of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) movements.”
She added that work on the road would begin before the end of the year. “Unlike emergency access roads that are mostly done by WFP (the World Food Programme) in Southern Sudan, the work we will be doing will be much more durable.”
Meanwhile, in a unique example of community spirit, the Deputy Governor and people of Western Equatoria, particularly in Yambio, are demonstrating what collective action can achieve. |
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