Jonglei: One man killed after dike breaks in Twic East County

October 4, 2012 (BOR) – A man is reported to have drowned by water flowing over a broken dike in Twic East, the county’s Commissioner, Dau Akoi Jurkuch, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Makuol Barach Akoi, a cousin to the commissioner, in his middle age, met his death while working as a group trying to fix a broken part of the dike, which is the only means of protecting the land from flooding coming from the White Nile River.

On September 28, the two-meter high dike that begins in Bor County’s Jale village of Alian at Aduar (a small lake) and runs for about 25 kilometres to the border of Twic East where it continues north-ward for another 175 kilometres through Twic East before it ends at Lith Payam in Twic East.

The dike is the only way the low land of Twic East county, which is 244 metres below sea level according to the commissioner, is reclaimed for agricultural use.

Speaking from Twic East headquarters on Thursday, Akoi said he ordered the communities in Twic East to go and fix the broken part of the dike after a large volume of water flowed into the villages on the day the dike broke.

“The table is now about one meter. A short person cannot move in this water. It [is a] tragic flood”, said Akoi.

Sources in the area said the dike had not been sabotaged, adding the breakage was caused by heavy water waves coming from River Nile.

The commissioner said “we have completed the fixing [of] the broken part” adding the that they were doing final touches.

Three months ago, the local authority in Twic East mobilised funds, including 900,000 South Sudanese pounds [$284,810 at the current dollar rate of 3.16 SSP] funding from the Community Development Funds (CDF) from the County Members of Parliament to South Sudan Legislative Assembly for renovation of the dike after the onset of this year’s rainy season.

The task of maintaining the dike is now entirely left in the hands of the locals to fix any broken part manually.

(ST)