Manawa Peter, the minister of water resources and irrigation on Tuesday led a delegation to Egypt to inspect the barges - courtesy

The minister of Water Resource and Irrigation Manawa Peter has received four river cleaning machines known as barges from his Egyptian counterpart for cleaning pathways of the Nile River.

This was confirmed by Gattiek Wichar, the press secretary in the office of the minister.

The project was part of an agreement signed between South Sudan and Egypt in 2018.

The initiative is intended to increase the flow of water downstream in order to reduce flooding in South Sudan as well as to satisfy the dire need of water by Egypt.

Speaking to Eye Radio yesterday, Gattiek said the project is expected to start next month in the Naam River in Unity State.

He says minister Manawa Peter travelled to Egypt last Friday upon invitation by his counterpart in order to discuss water cooperation.

“The government of Egypt has provided four batches for opening rivers such as Bahr el Ghazal basin and Unity State Rive,”

“They want to clear the river so that the water continues flowing or the movement of water is not affected by any challenges and that project will be implemented at the end of the month and will start in Unity State.

The Spokesperson of the minister believes that there will be no negative environmental effect using the machines.

“I don’t think there is a negative impact because it just helps us to clear the water to flow because now in Unity state, the movement of water is not normal as usual.

“They want to clear the river so that the water can move freely and also it can help us to mitigate these issues to do with flooding and all those.”

A barge is a water vehicle that is designed to remove materials such as sand, soil in the rivers and water weeds.