Potent Environmental Disaster Underway in Jonglei State
By Malith Alier, Bor
January 8, 2015 (SSB) — Our environment is the single most important surrounding everyone should all cherish and protect at all cost. The environment for anybody, who is not yet acquainted self with, is the natural world that exists around us. It includes plants, animals, water and even fellow human beings in the vicinity!
It is the external environment that helps shape us to be what we are. Your immediate environment provides you with food and other needs like trees for construction, firewood; charcoal and medicinal plants.
There is a growing concern around the globe that the natural environment is under threat by the man himself. Vast swathes of forests are being cleared for farming, logging and are also used as a source of energy particularly in the third world. In recent years you might have heard of the destruction of Amazon rain forest through logging by faceless multinational companies.
The sustained and continued destruction of natural environment around the world through the above means is the subject of disasters like tsunamis, hurricanes, ice melting that result in rise on sea levels and others. In general it is called climate change by scientists.
Azadirachta indica (Neemtree)
At the local level, our very environment is severely under attack by foreign hands in acquiescence by local authorities and folks. The Juba city was surrounded by thick forests in the sixties and seventies according to those who were here at the times. This is hardly the case today because of charcoal. The demand for energy in form of charcoal outweighs the supply particularly in towns and big cities in the country. Alternative sources of energy like natural gas are nonexistent despite South Sudan being a petroleum exporting country.
On a visit to Bor on several occasions, this writer witnessed two threats to our only reliable source of everything, the forest. The forest once again and as far as I remember is a source of energy, food, shelter and rain. The forest is further a purifier of oxygen for your own breath. It is the habitat for abundant animals. Fauna and flora coexist!
One of the real threats to our indigenous trees is the tree called neem, scientifically named Andirachta indica. The white people who did not have the interests of South Sudanese at heart introduced this poisonous plant to eliminate our indigenous forest in the long run. This is abundantly clear right now by the look of the City of Bor. The indigenous plants are no more in town.
The marauding neem trees are advancing to the heart of our forests by speed of thousand miles per day! The irony is that no one seems to notice it. A lot of people take slight notice about it but take no action even those in authority seem to be oblivious about it. Note as well that it is not only Bor which is under invasion by neem trees, other twons and cities are also affected in the same way.
The number two threat is the usual clearing of forests with impunity by foreigners who have no knowledge about important indigenous plants that the locals can’t dare to cut. These include lalop or thou, acuil, lang, cum, luta and many more. These foreign folks have nothing to lose because by the end of it all they will go back to their countries after exhausting our God given green forests.
These foreigners in question include Ugandans, Sudanese from Darfur and others. These people have rules in place in their countries about where, when and what kind of trees to fell for charcoal. The Sudanese from Darfur are however, people of the desert and therefore, have no regard to forests whatsoever. It is therefore, inconceivable to entrust them with invaluable forests like ours.
It is only in South Sudan where foreigners do as they wish. They bring seeds of unknown plants and introduce them at any place as they please. They fell, indigenous and sacred trees mercilessly without planting replacement. This is to say that the basics of environmental sustainability are swept under the care in the dormancy of environmental protection agencies.
The world of the environmental protection agencies is a dormant universe. The Ministry of environment is doing no meaningful work just like the ministry of Interior which allows foreigners to enter and do anything at will.
The inaction of both ministries puts the country at the mercy of foreign hands all the time. We haven’t realised that missed opportunities are difficult to reverse. The foreign nationals will take as a right to be in South Sudan. The Arabs of the north were hard to dislodge from the country. Much bloodshed was the result that eventually forced them out paving the way for 2011 independence. Event after independence similar problems of foreign influx continue to dog this country.
The East African boda boda operators caused headache between South Sudan and Uganda. Last year, the labour ministerial order barring foreigners from holding certain positions in the country was another example of this kind. Foreigners have taken it upon themselves not to be bound by rules and regulations of the sovereign South Sudan. It the same mentality since colonisation and it is we who continue to suffer.
Besides the above problems the environment faces is the usual pollution by plastic carriers banned during the Kuol Manyang’s term as governor of Jonglei. Everything plastic carrier is now back to the State’s capital after the takeover by another Caretaker Governor. Though banning of plastic containers was not the right solution it however helped in a city where garbage collection is rudimentary at best.
A proactive approach needs to be devised right away if the current disaster is to be totally reversed. Those who are actively involved in clearing bushes should be licensed and be educated on what trees to chop and at what time. Not only that, they should be required to plant replacement trees in a certain period. This should be a condition for licensing. Desertification as a result of random clearance of forests is not an option here. A country with green forests is blessed.
Imagine a situation where South Sudan is a desert. Our past liberation wars would have been disastrous like the case in Darfur. The bushes of our forests provided cover for the Anya nya and the SPLA fighters. The wild fruits provided food for all of us during those difficult times of the two wars. The forests provide protection against erosion of soil through rain or wind. The southern forests attract timely rains every year on end. These are some of the reasons that should compel us to protect our forests.
All hope is not lost in the fight against environmental destruction. There are people who have realised the importance of preserving our environment. Although there are no credible environmental activists like the late Wangari Mathaai of Kenya, everybody who have realised the poor state of our environment plant a tree or two on their home fronts. This will in the long run alter the situation for better. Please plant mango, guava, lemon and other edible plants at home or in your gardens if you can. The end result will be amazing and South Sudan will remember you for that.
There is one farmer in Bor who is always in the news for making the difference. He started planting the above trees since arrival of the liberation forces in 2005. He is earning big in the fruit market monopolised by him alone. He is called Paul Alim Amol. He is known in the whole country.
Happy the new year 2015 to all of you who will take the message of environmental protection as one of your New Year resolutions. Plant at least one tree for the New Year.
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