Price of electricity in Juba perhaps a reflection of dismal failure

By Jacob K. Lupai*

Novemeber 13, 2008 — It was one time somebody said that Juba in Southern Sudan was one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to live. I was then sceptical of such a sweeping statement about the cost of living in Juba. Now I am inclined to agree because of the direct experience of living and bearing the cost of living in Juba and also witnessing the depressing standard of basic services.

In Juba there seems to be non-monitoring and non-control of prices. As such there is a high tendency on the part of businessmen and investors to make big money fast as they could in the absence of an efficient system to monitor and control prices. For example, a water plant in Juba which is obviously owned by investors sells a bottle of 500ml of water for one Sudanese pound. A similar bottle of water imported from Uganda is also sold for one Sudanese pound. It is not clear why the local water plant in Juba shouldn’t be producing cheaper bottled water than the imported bottled water from Uganda. Also a visit to two auto spare parts shops owned by Sudanese showed that the prices of spare parts in one shop were about 2.2 times higher than the prices in the other shop. The auto spare parts in the two shops were of the same original make. According to a visitor to Saudi Arabia a Coke was of uniform price throughout the Kingdom. In another example the price of Meloti beer in Asmara in Eritrea was the same as in any other part of Ethiopia. One explanation of a price of a commodity being uniform throughout a country could be that subsidies were used to make the price of the commodity affordable to the public and might also be to boost sales.

In Juba a Coke is 2.50 Sudanese pounds while in Khartoum the price may be somewhere between 0.50 and 0.70 pounds. This suggests that a trader in Juba may be charging 400 per cent of what a trader in Khartoum charges notwithstanding the cost of transporting the Coke from Khartoum to Juba. However, one worrying thing in Juba seems to be the absence of the culture of commitment to social welfare. The utter appalling roads conditions and poor sanitation with the absence of environmental friendly sewage disposal system may indeed confirm the lack of commitment to deliver the needed basic services for a better quality of life in Juba. The miserable failure to render the expected services is not only limited to roads and sanitation. In Juba for the first time the Southern Sudan Electricity Corporation has introduced a pre-paid system that may be a cause for complain by the low paid. The Government of National Unity (GONU) in Khartoum subsidises electricity for the Northern States of Sudan. Strangely enough the GONU does not subsidise electricity for the Southern States. To be fair it could have been that the GONU had expected the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) to subsidise for the Southern States. However, how does the GONU expect unity to be attractive when it treats the Southern States as belonging to another nation in the interim period? Thanks to the subsidies by the GONU in the north one pays 40 Sudanese pounds for 200 kilowatts. In the south and in Juba in particular 40 Sudanese pounds buy only 80 kilowatts. According to Southern Sudan Electricity Corporation the GOSS could not subsidise electricity in the south because it claimed there was no money. The claim of the GOSS is arguable. The GOSS was not serious.

An opinion poll analysed in Sudanic Magazine of March/April 2008 illustrated that the GOSS was 90 per cent corrupt. It could have been that the GOSS was marooned in a sea of corruption that services for social welfare were the least in the list of priorities, hence no subsidies for electricity and other services. The Southern Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission, of course the creation of the GOSS, is nothing but a white elephant. The GOSS itself is described as 90 per cent corrupt. How possible is it that the GOSS cares about corruption? The GOSS has in its midst sharks that will likely frustrate any attempt for investigation of corrupt practices in the establishment. There is no evidence of a successful prosecution of corrupt officials in Southern Sudan so that they are put away behind bars.

On security in Juba the GOSS does not fare any better. The GOSS seems indifferent. A youth culture of lawlessness is sweeping Juba like a hurricane with impunity yet the GOSS is not seen to ensure public tranquillity. The word “naggers” is often used to describe such a mob of outlaws. What the GOSS and the local authorities are doing about the lawlessness becoming the accepted behaviour in Juba could best be described as an abdication of responsibility for public safety. Where on earth are criminal gangs of youth adopting terror as a weapon of intimidation and murder of the innocent allowed or tolerated except in Juba as if though the people of Juba did not deserve any security.

Electricity and water are utilities that are expected to be for the social welfare of people through government subsidies and in the case of Southern Sudan as peace dividends. However, it is a different story in Southern Sudan as electricity has not been subsidised unlike in Northern Sudan. Water, though, is an exception. According to Southern Sudan Urban Water Corporation there are no water meters but flat rates. For example, in first and second class residential areas the flat rate is 18 Sudanese pounds per month but in third and fourth class the flat rate is 9. Asked on what basis the flat rate was decided, the corporation said it was based on assessing water consumption in the different residential areas. For instance in first and second class residential areas people were expected to use more water than in third and fourth class areas. Residents in first and second class areas were expected to have flashing toilets, cars to wash and gardens to irrigate. According to the corporation none of those were expected in third and fourth class residential areas.

The main disadvantage of water flat rate is that residents are forced to pay for non-existent supply of water by the corporation as it is sometimes experienced in Juba. Prolonged water cuts have become part of daily routine. The public mainly relies on privately owned water tankers for their water supply as the corporation hardly copes with demand. Although the water tankers deliver raw and untreated water directly from the Nile with its public health risk, people seem contented. However, the water is so murky that one may feel some mud when taking a shower. The raw water is delivered to overhead tanks and the only convenience one gets is that water runs down pipes from the overhead tanks in the houses as though the water was from the main supply.

To fill an overhead tank of 2000 litres costs 50 Sudanese pounds which may barely last for a 10 ten days in a large family. This suggests that somebody may pay 150 Sudanese pounds in a month. A typical labourer in Juba receives a salary of 233 Sudanese pounds with allowances inclusive. This simply suggests that the price of water delivered by tankers is beyond the low paid. Unhygienic conditions may prevail as there may not be enough water for washing up for cleanliness. Nonetheless in all fairness Southern Sudan Urban Water Corporation is constructing a water treatment plant that may at last supply clean drinking water to most residents in Juba. According to the corporation the plant will be ready by the end of 2008 and those areas which did not get water before may this time get water. It is hoped that this is not another lip service.

On electricity there is much to be desired. Like any other marketable commodity there is nothing to be proud of about electricity in Juba. Even what is supposed to be the hotline is not immune from power cuts. Companies and the better off use generators to supply themselves with electricity. After three years of relative peace and calm much is yet to be seen in basic services as peace dividends. In frustration a resident of Juba said that during the war roads in Juba were not as bad as they are now. The implication is that the roads were in better conditions than in peace time. What this means is that the system created by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is failing the people. The reality on the ground confirms that indeed the system is close to failure. A mammoth building said to be the SPLM headquarters in Juba is left like a badly constructed hanging tower waiting for somebody else from a distant land to have it rescued. Perhaps the only thing that will come to haunt southern leaders by the end of the interim period is the utter failure and negligence in providing basic services to the people in Juba and indeed in other cities and towns in Southern Sudan. However, not all is bleak. Juba is a city with a mushrooming construction industry. Modern houses and hotels are going up at terrific speed. Contractors are also renovating old ramshackle government buildings and for the first time one may have a hot shower. Toilets are also of a high standard. Nonetheless the public at large does not seem to have those privileges.

Returning to the price of electricity in Juba one is reminded of a system that favours the better off. A resident in Juba has to spend 100 Sudanese pounds to get electricity that a resident in Khartoum only spends 40 Sudanese pounds. It is therefore evident that the cost of electricity to a resident in Khartoum is much cheaper than to a resident in Juba, thanks to the GONU. However, according to Southern Sudan Electricity Corporation the cost of electricity is cheaper in Khartoum because electricity is generated by hydro-power through dams while in Juba generators are operated by using gasoline. The reason given was not convincing because without subsidies the cost of electricity in Khartoum could have been probably the same as in Juba. The Sudan is producing millions of barrels of oil from its oil fields and is an oil exporting country. It could have been part of peace dividends to subsidise electricity in Southern Sudan. Probably money grabbing instinct is robbing the South of subsidies on electricity as peace dividend. The people of Southern Sudan deserve something better. The so called liberators seem to have lost the vision for which they took up arms only to become like dangerous sharks which careless for the innocent ones.

Khartoum has been accused of unequal development of Sudan with the south, east and the west characterised as neglected. Now how is Juba different from Khartoum when basic services in Southern Sudan are miserable and a disgrace to our image as hard working people who deserve something better. Didn’t we work hard for the CPA only for insensitivities to make it a mockery? With disgraceful services and the alleged 90 per cent corruption in the GOSS probably it was better that there was no CPA. What is the use when only a handful enjoy too much while the majority are left in wilderness. All the martyrs who ultimately laid down their lives for Southern Sudan must be very sad in their graves. How will independence to Southern Sudan be any different from the interim period where it is most likely that the same breed of people and failures will be the ones running Southern Sudan again? Unless people will say never again to those seen as coordinators of corruption in the interim period come election in 2009, people may need to think carefully whether we shall not really become a failed state like Somalia. Those who perceive themselves being marginalised and undermined under the CPA will most probably react violently and the consequences could be dire.

Reinvestment of money collected by Southern Sudan Electricity Corporation into sustainable electric supply is not evident. With very poor infrastructure development in the supply of electricity it is not clear how the corporation is justifying its existence. Electricity is expensive and poorly supplied to the public in Juba. People are still to be convinced that the CPA was truly for the development and benefit of Southern Sudan but not for the few visionless sharks who seem preoccupied with how to maximise their acquisition of wealth in the interim period as if Southern Sudan belongs to some coming generations of aliens from another planet that we should not care for now. Insecurity and miserable failure in the provision of basic services would have been enough conditions to force the resignation of negligent ministers, officials and security chiefs where people were held accountable.

In Southern Sudan work is as usual. None seems to care about anything except about how to make quick money. One depressing characteristic is too much noise and no action. This is partly why we have miserable conditions of roads, expensive electricity, lawless gangs of youth terrorising the innocent with impunity and alleged 90 per cent corruption. The list could be endless. May God have mercy and bless Southern Sudan, Amen!

*The author is a regular Sudan Tribune contributor, he can be reached at [email protected]