By Yiep Joseph<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite the River Nile flowing steadily nearby, many residents in Juba are experiencing severe water shortages, as suppliers strike in response to new price regulations imposed by the City Council.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As of yesterday, many residential areas have gone weeks without water supply, as suppliers continue to protest against the City Council’s regulations for the reduction of water prices per barrel.<\/p>\n This situation is prompting urgent calls for government intervention to resolve the water scarcity.<\/p>\n Former press secretary in the office of President Ateny Wek Ateny called on the government to seriously intervene in ending the water crisis in the city.<\/p>\n He stated that the prices that were recently set by the City Council were in good faith, but the water suppliers continue to exploit the citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government must intervene to stop this exploitation. Even if it means to withdraw licenses of the foreign drivers (water tank drivers) or even give them a few days to leave the country,\u201d Ateny said in a statement.<\/p>\n According to the statement, Ateny expressed that the protesting water tank drivers are not only punishing the Citizens by not giving water but they are against the country.<\/p>\n He reiterated that some government officials who have water at their residences may not understand the situation citizens are going through, adding that there is a need for an immediate solution.<\/p>\n \u201cI am cognizant that the majority of government officials have their boreholes dug in their houses, and so they can\u2019t understand what I am saying here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to note that not much tax has been levied on water so far by Juba Municipality and Juba Urban Water, which runs boreholes across Juba City\u2014constructed by JICA. But greed, exploitation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that the protest of the water suppliers against the City Council’s fixed price per barrel is greed by those who wanted to make abnormal profits.<\/p>\n He called on the government to act, adding that any step, like the withdrawal of driver\u2019s licenses from water tank drivers, is a normal procedure and is not against international diplomacy.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, anything that will rescue our people from dying of thirst is what is now needed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Last week, the Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization Edmund(CEPO) Yakani also called on the government to intervene and solve the water crisis in the city.<\/p>\n Recently, the JCC announced a new price for a drum of water, cutting it from SSP 5,000 to SSP 2,500 within the city centre and 3,000 in the outskirts.<\/p>\n According to the City Council, the decision was reached in consultation with urban water cooperation and water suppliers.<\/p>\n However, many residents reported that suppliers are still charging the original price of 5,000 SSP per drum. In some areas, the suppliers charge even SSP 6,000.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Water Resources Minister Pal Mai, in his address to the National Assembly, said that his ministry and the South Sudan Urban Water Corporation, which is within his docket, do not have the mandates to set the prices for commercial water tankers that deliver water in and around Juba.<\/p>\n He said that the water corporation sells a drum of water to the tanker drivers at SSP 500, but they then go and retail at their prices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Yiep Joseph Despite the River Nile flowing steadily nearby, many residents in Juba are experiencing severe water shortages, as suppliers strike in response to new price regulations imposed by the City Council. As of yesterday, many residential areas have gone weeks without water supply, as suppliers continue to[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Water-tanks-in-line-at-filling-station.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29596,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29594\/revisions\/29596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}