Limur (Nyimur) river along South Sudan-Uganda border. (-)

Intellectuals from Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria have voiced concerns over the South Sudan-Uganda initiative to build dams along their shared border without community consultations.

On 3^rd October 2024, the Minister of Water Resources revealed that South Sudan and Uganda were considering the construction of two dams for irrigation and water supply in the Limur River.

The river is shared between South Sudan’s Magwi County and the Neighboring Lamwo district in Uganda.

The $98 million project is dubbed as Limur Multi-purpose Water and Resource Development Project memo.

Speaking to Eye Radio on Tuesday, October 8, the chairperson of Acholi Community expressed dissatisfaction over the memo saying they were surprised to hear about the project.

David Otim said the community’s priority is roads and bridges are broken.

“We are not happy as the Acholi community. What happened last week on Friday when the Minister of Water Resources gave a memo for the launch of the Limur Multipurpose Water and Development Project,” said Otim.

“In my community, we are not taking out public consultation without doing environmental impact assessment, without doing social impact assessment. So this one took us by surprise,” he said.

“We have rejected it as a community as a whole, and if the African Development Bank is serious, they want this project to go ahead, or the government wants the project to go ahead, they must use the right protocol,” he added.

“We also, as the community, have our interests, which are the broken bridges, the roads are dilapidated. Before doing something, if the government in Kampala have an interest, certain interest like that, we must first of all address the interest of the community,” Otim said.

Meanwhile, an MP in the Council of States has called for risk assessment and wider consultation between the two communities across borders.

Okello Odongto Lawiri believes that the communities can give their views only if they understand the context of the project.

“I don’t know if the ministry and the project initiators have done a risk assessment and then have done also consultation with the communities,” said Odongto.

“If there is something like that the community of Acholi should be widely consulted from the side of South Sudan because I know this same problem is going to affect those ones in the side of Uganda as well,” he said.

“We need a wider consultation and we need time for us to understand the content and the context of the project itself. Then we give our views based on this,” he added.

However, the deputy information minister Dr Maiju Korok had said earlier that the cabinet tasked Minister Pal to provide maps of the project area and consult stakeholders including the community.

Last week, farmers in Magwi County decried a broken bridge which they say prevents them from transporting their agricultural produce to the national market in Juba.

The Amee Bridge connects Magwi County’s food-producing region to the Nimule Juba highway.

Atepi Bridge which links South Sudan to Uganda’s Lamwo district collapsed on the 25^th of August over a heavy downpour.

Road networks across the region remain dilapidated as automobiles struggle to navigate movements.