Unity state shop owners demand new plots after road widening demolitions

November 18, 2013 (BENTIU) – Shops owners in Unity state are accusing local authorities of failing to provide them with new plots to rebuild their shops after they were demolished to widen the road between in Bentiu and Rubkotna towns.

Roads in Unity state like most regions of South Sudan are infamously bad, especially during the rainy season which recently came to an end.

Last week the Bentiu government decided to begin renovating 45 kilometers of roads that connect state capital with neighbouring villages. The repairs were supposed to begin in October but they were delayed due to heavy flooding.

Gatluak Khor Chak, one of the 100 shopkeepers affected, says he lost his roadside position due to the renovation work. He backed the government’s decision to improve the roads but blamed local officials for failing to allocate a new location for his business.

“Our positions here [in Bentiu’s Kalibalek market] mean a lot for the roads repairs, but now it has nothing for us since we have been pushed out of the area, we have nowhere to go, most of us had [to] dismantle [our] shops and have to remain idle or choose to go home or remain jobless”, added Chak.

He says over 100 young people who sold goods by the roadside have been heavily affected by the road widening works.

Nyariek Thiec, 36, a tea seller at Ariap market says she is losing nearly 100 South Sudanese Pounds a day after being forced from the area. She too backed the decision to renovate the roads but urged the government to immediately find those whose businesses had been displaced a new location so they can begin to catch up on income they had lost.

Unity state’s ministry of physical infrastructure survey and planning says the government intends to create community markets if there are too many applicants for new plots.

“The ministry will plan a market which will be constituted with this specific community which are running small business like selling credit cards or the airtime and charging phones so we can also plan for a small market which will also benefit them”, Turuk Riek an engineer at the ministry told Sudan Tribune.

Riek said that they would look to create a new market if they have between 300 and 500 applicants.

(ST)