South Sudan seeks immediate financial assistance for road building

August 17, 2010 (RENK) — The regional government of South Sudan on Tuesday made a public appeal targeting donor communities to release funds for immediate construction of roads and bridges.

In a press statement to media on Tuesday in Juba, Anthony Makana, the south’s minister for roads and transport said that his government has given roads priority but lack of funds has hindered progress.

“Every day I receive an average of three to five (international) companies who want to do the roads but I tell them we don’t have money,” the minister said according to Reuters.

“To connect all major towns in southern Sudan we need 13,000 km (8,000 miles) of roads … we need five to six billion dollars to Tarmac about 80 percent of that,” Reuters reported him as saying.

Makana said only three towns had asphalt roads in southern Sudan:

• Juba, the capital has 43 km (27 miles)
• Wau and Malakal have only 17 km (11 miles) combined

According to Reuters, Makana said that his budget of 463 million Sudanese pounds ($195 million) for this year was the “second biggest budget after security”.

“But I don’t see this money … about 70 percent of the budget goes to the companies who have already done work. That is why you may see in some places we are lagging behind in terms of addressing the challenges of infrastructure.”

What is left of the budget, after paying the companies that have already completed work, is spent on rehabilitating dirt roads rather than starting new projects the minister said.

With southern Sudan’s referendum due to take place in less than five months, Makana requested that donors provide funds so that infrastructure projects can begin the poll. The south is widely expected to vote to separate from the north.

The referendum part of a peace deal between the ruling National Congress Party of president and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which ended 22 years of conflict.

Since the 2005 the SPLM have governed southern Sudan as a autonomous region forming a government and establishing institutions.

According to Reuters:

Southern officials and aid agencies have in the past criticized the World Bank-led programme to administer donor money to the south as cumbersome and complex, saying it contributed to the slow development of the south post peace.

The World Bank admits there was a slow start to the programme but says major achievements have since been made including rehabilitating 363 km (227 miles) of roads and maintaining 945 km (590 miles).

(ST)