Implications of Jonglei Canal project
By Juach Deng Juach
November 16, 2007 — “It is the most important project in the Country, but people are being told only the positive information. There a lot of unknowns,” Says James Holtaway, the former deputy director of USAID mission in the Jonglei area, 1982.
This manuscript is intended at highlighting the developmental and political issues connected to Jongelei canal in the past, present and perhaps in the future. And at the onset, I would like to indicate overtly that any future resumption of the project would need proper consultation from the local populace. Not merely governments in Juba or Khartoum signing a memorandum of understanding with Egypt or any other party with appetite of Nile water. Since none of us is certain in relation to the negative impacts that are irreparable, we ought to be extra cautious in signing deals over the poor Jonglei Canal.
At the moment, all indicators are presenting a manifestation of a repeat of the past mistakes which partly led to the last war in the South. Therefore we have to handle any development project related to Jonglei canal with care because it’s fragile. It can plunge down and rupture beyond repair.
These gauges range from media critiques and exclusively of Sudantribune website dated Friday 24th November, 2006, Nyankol’s latest album released in Australia October 28th, 2007 and lastly but not least the news that Egyptian are going to built power plants in the South.
The newly released album by Nyankol, is with reference to the past exertion associated with Jonglei Canal and its current rumoured resumption and the unknown negative impacts on the natives as echoed by Holtaway earlier in the paper. Although these events are nearly a year a part, they’re an estimation of what is to come in a little while or in future if unaddressed adequately at present when the signs are motionless and placid.
In my opinion; these markers and lots more are ample to warrant a suspicion about the prospects of our Country’s stability because the propaganda is circulating like wildfire in the savannah, and as it goes, it gains momentum, interpreted sinisterly to suit the enemies of SPLA/M and GOSS.
Unfortunately, neither the GoSS nor the state government made or are attempting at any efforts to tranquilise the rumours, or to educate the inhabitants of the Canal Zone and South Sudan at large as to the nature of the scheme, whether it is a revised plan or a continuation of the previous project?
The public opinion in and outside South Sudan is likening this act to what Lagu and Alier did in the precedent by collaborating with Jallaba and the Egyptians in the excavation of Jongelei canal. Nobody knows even the signatories of the rumoured MOU about the irreparable damages the project can cause particularly with the threat of global warming in a region already threatened by the desertification according to my research on the problem of this particular Canal.
“The effects of the canal on the water table, and the effect of the water table on the ecology of the Sudd, haven’t been studied enough. It’s not that I know and they don’t. It’s that no one does” According to Len Berry, Professor of geology, Clark University, who studied Sudd hydrology (The Jonglei Canal, A ditch Too Big?, p.17).
Because of the complicated nature of Jongelei canal politics, I urge our governments (GoSS & State) representatives to come out clean and explain their position to South Sudanese at home and abroad about the rumoured memorandum of understanding between them and the “third party”.
According to Abel Alier’s book, Too many agreements dishonoured, the first violent action in South Sudan after the 1972 peace treaty was caused by the approval and announcement of the canal excavation by the regional government in a press release in Juba (p.240).
But we do not wish that to occur yet again at this critical moment when we are waiting for final words from Dr (president) Bashir regarding the comatose infant in the intensive care unit by the name Comprehensive peace agreement whose father died a mysterious death in an air crash over two years ago on Sudan – Ugandan border before seeing his precious baby crawl!
Catchphrases at present day akin to early 70s are an indication that the public is being misinformed once more. “From the slogans and statements made by students in Juba, Alier writes, it was clear beyond doubt that they were victims of wild and vicious rumours (p.241)”.
The rumour at present isn’t about bringing into South Sudan 2 million Egyptian peasants like in the past but more about the Nile water and Sudd region being completely drained. Comparable to the past story, that said that the canal was planned to drain all the water, fish and other aquatic life, including hippos and crocs from the Sudd to Egypt for the benefit of the Egyptians. The current rumour states that our government of South Sudan is cooperating with Jallaba and Egypt to “drain our share of river Nile away and that the peoples will be left to starve to death. The anecdote is in part like the initial of the 70s when it was claimed that the Sudd would be left dry and uninhabited, rendering it and surrounding areas liable to desertification (p.242).
But, wait a second; the gossip is being supported by facts. Below statement from a respected environmentalist who was part of the larger team investigating Jonglei Canal project independently in 1970s declares.
“In a country baked by an equatorial sun and bordered by the Sahara ,such a marginal effects could spiral into a full scale desertification” states Mann of Environmental Liaison Centre based in Nairobi, Kenya, 1983. (Robert, E, 1983, p.16). And on the other hand I’d like to offer the case history of current efforts to renegotiate Nile water rights in Central, East and North African Nations. In theory Egypt claims to have a legal and real life claims to the Lion’s share of water as a result of a colonial treaty with by then the colonial power (UK) in many African nations along river Nile.
The tale of the Nile is sometimes interesting and fascinating in its own right. The Nile drains approximately about 10 % of the African continent’s water; it flows through 10 riparian Countries that contain some 293 million people who are on average among the poorest on the planet (P.P, Howell & J.A Allan, 1994, The Nile, Sharing a scarce resource). Any success these 10 countries will make to create a workable legal establishment governing water allocation would be, by most measures a major break through. If that happens; we hope there will be regional improvements in the standards of living and could perhaps even avert war over dwindling water resources in most of African nations.
The current efforts to negotiate solutions over the Nile, however illustrate how gains in sustainable yield can be at the expense of losses in wildlife and ecosystems. In addition to that as well, these solutions can drastically affect the ways of life of local populations such the Nilotes who live a long the river and the entire nations that benefit from Nile.
As Egypt tamed the Nile at Aswan, it largely operated under the legal assumption that “Egypt is the Nile and The Nile is Egypt”. The assumption was correct under the colonial and post colonial era treaties but not at the present with independent African states. Egypt should respect the sovereignty of other Countries and shouldn’t behave like an imperialist in our midst.
In the Nile water agreement of 1929, the British government, on behalf of Egypt provided that Sudan’s water needs would be subordinated to the former for some reasons known to them by then and not at present with the threat of global warming. Because of the controversiality of the agreement; South Sudanese populace can’t support the resumption of the Jonglei Canal project of which no none have studied it carefully to weigh the benefits against the irreparable damages that are going to remain with us in the South Sudan perpetually.
In brief, I would like to conclude by calling on GoSS and Jonglei state government on behalf of concerned citizens worldwide to state their position overtly. They should address the derivation of the chitchat. And to the Egyptians, the Jonglei Canal project resumption is unacceptable to the masses of South Sudan. We persuade you to excavate your own Jonglei from Mediterranean Sea through Alexandria to Aswan high dam.
The populace in South Sudan, not the government, have agreed to give you a copy right for the name Jonglei if you are in so much love with the name. However the condition attached to this; is that your Jonglei Canal should come from Mediterranean Sea to wherever you want it to go, provide that ditch is inside Egypt and not on South Sudanese soil.
The author is based in [email protected]