Dr. Albino Bol, the National Minister of Youth and Sports speaking during the launch of Youth Camp Activities in Juba - Credit | Lou Nelson/Eye Radio | April 25, 2022

The Minister of Youth and Sports Dr. Albino Bol has described anyone criminalising opposing views on the dredging of the Nile tributaries as ‘criminal’.

Dr. Albino made the remarks during the commemoration of the environmental day in Juba on Monday.

This comes after the Cabinet Affairs Minister, Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro called individuals, groups, or social media users who are opposed to the dredging project ‘social media criminals’.

During Manawa’s funeral, Dr. Martin described those who singled out the Minister of Water Resource and Irrigation over dredging of Nile tributaries as ‘Social Media Criminals’.

“The dredging on the Naam River which was negatively politicized and propagated on social media was a resolution of the council of ministers, resolution number 05/2022 taken during the cabinet meeting on the 13^th of May 2022,” Dr. Elia stated.

“Therefore I advise no individual, group, or social media criminals should castigate the minister or any of his members of staff.”

For his part, the Minister of Youth and Sport, Dr. Albino Bol said, the dredging project should not be rushed before proper environmental and social-economic impact studies are conducted.

He instead regarded as a criminal, an individual who attacked those against the dredging project.

“Any talk about dredging, and anyone who tries to say, people who say dredging should not be done are criminals, he is the criminal,” Dr. Albino said.

“Why? Because this matter is concerning our country, it is concerning your future and that of the coming generations after 100 and 200 years, there is no joke about it,

“We have our academia here in the universities, and the ministry of water resources and irrigation, and ministry of environment, they are all experts,

“We will be here in this hall, and we the people, the politicians will come and listen to what they are saying, and from there we will draw our political decision based on what we are going to hear from them.”

Last month, the government of Unity State received the first consignment of Egyptian machinery for clearing the Naam River and Bahr El-Ghazal basin.

The decision on the dredging project so far sparked mixed reactions from the public, with some raising concerns the move could inflict irreversible damage on the suds ecosystem.

Following the events, different government institutions contradicted themselves over the dredging plan aimed to mitigate three years of flooding in the low-lying areas of the country.

Yesterday, the government called on the public to effectively participate in the public consultation on the Nile River projects scheduled for next week.

Environmental experts are expected to make their presentations to the legislature and the cabinet from July 13 to 14 this year.