The Origin of Bor Town Embankment Dyke and reasons for current floodings!

By Makwei ACHOL THIONG, Bor, South Sudan

Friday, September 18, 2020 (PW) — In 2013 Bor City experienced one of the worst floods in years. By December, when Juba crisis started, the residential quarters lining the bank of the Nile to the east were submerged by flood waters due to the Nile bursting its banks and reinforced by heavy rains. Bor Municipality with population estimate between 400,000 – 500,000 persons, at the time, was shakened. Tens of thousand of people were affected in areas of Panapet, Thon-buor, Hai Machuor, Marol (2), Nigel, Leudiet, Achengdir, Malou, Arek and beyond.

It was devastative!Faced with deep humanitarian situation, Bor Municipal leadership under the stewardship of Eng. Nhial Majak Nhial as mayor, joined hands with UNMISS’s Engineering contingent (ROK-HMEC) in an effort to contain the flood. Initial efforts to build local dyke were not motivating especially in the areas of Hai Machuor, South Sudan Hotel, Achengdiir and Panjak. So it was decided that an aerial survey, to find topography data (slopeness) for master dyke, be done.

The mayor and myself attended the meeting and were part of the aerial survey team. I would later be tasked with writing the proposal for building the current Embankment dyke.After establishing the magnitude of damage, interms of areas submerged, people displaced, etc as well as topography data, the stage was set for establishing the current embankment dyke east of the bank of the Nile that annually burst its banks.

In the process of educating local authorities, residents (especially those who would be affected by the construction of the dyke in terms of displacement), etc, a number of challenges worth recalling include:

1. There was serious pessimism among many people. Others with conservative views that there was no reason a natural flow (for Nile River overflows and internal drainage) can be interrupted.

2. Others didn’t want the dyke constructed for fear of being displaced, especially those whose settlement had lined the bank of the Nile.

3. Livestock herders viewed construction of dyke as a burden to them and their animals who needed pasture and water from the river.

4. Others thought building an embankment dyke was a mega-project (and YES it was) requiring millions of dollars to accomplished and that it wasn’t going to be realistic.

These and more, though were politicized, didn’t derail any progress made. The city needed intervention for similar or worst case scenario like the current floodings. So the project was divided into three phases:

Phase I

Construction of 17km Bor Embankment Dyke plus 2.4 Panliet enclave. In the course of mobilizing equipments, securing relevant paperworks to start the dyke (phase I), another crisis but this time more deadly one started, the 2013’s political crisis. 

After calm returned in 2014, the city was cleaned (collection of corpses that had littered Bor streets and residential areas as well as cleaning of Marol market through the collection of scrap materials) contact was reestablished with ROK-HMEC (Republic of Korea Horizontal Military  Engineering Company) and the work on Bor embankment started in a ground bteaking ceremony in Bor on June 19, 2014. 

A long 17 km dyke (with nearly 3m height in some places) around Bor town, starting from MalualChat Military garrison to Arek was constructed plus 2.4 km extension in 2015 for Panliet residential area that was initially isolated by the main dyke.

Phase II

This part involved the installation of water pumps in strategic locations (like Achengdiir, Central star, Malualchaat, etc) to drain out rain waters from the city. Through ROK-HMEC, the government of the Republic of Korean (ROK) had promised to donate these important plants.

Phase III

This phase considers avenues for internal drainage including digging of water catchment areas and installation of mini-bridges (and/or culverts) at major road intersections to coordinate water out of the city. It’s important to note that phase I was accomplished successfully, phase II was in progress as well as some overlapping achievements in Phase III especially in the area of installation of culverts and digging water channels.

Sustainability of Phase IWhat kills many projects is lack of preparedness for project survival after accomplishing it. In this context for the 17 km dyke to live long, a water monitoring meter was installed in the Nile, between Jonglei guests house and ministry of local government. The level of water was taken daily using this meter.

The Directorate of Public Relations under Mr. Kut Deng Kut was tasked with this work. If there was rise in water levels in the Nile, then a team is sent out to inspect the dyke so that areas of weaknesses are fixed in order to prepare the dyke for any eventuality. What happened since then?

In December 2015, there was change in leadership, Nhial was relieved without immediate successor getting appointed. Dr. Peter Akim Ajieth would be appointed as replacement 6months later in June 2016 but his administration was characterized by corruption involving deputy Mayors and little did his administration contribute meaningfully to things like the dyke that needed maintenance.

He would later get replaced with a Business man, Ghai Makor whose priority was openning up roads and securing public utilities. Gai was later replaced with Dr. Mach Majier, who in his short term in office worked on internal drainage system especially in the area of Panjak  and installation of culverts at some selected road intersections like Chuei-Atembany plus roads works.

In totality, the subsequent administrations of Bor Municipality had little attention to Bor 17km Embankment dyke, with only Mach coming the closest. Therefore over the years a number of factors (Human and natural) contributed to damaging the dyke.Why disregard early warning calls about eminent flooding this year? Never before have the people understood the meaning of Bor Embankment dyke.

Maybe the few living near it understood its purpose. But for vast majority of Bor residents, No. This year’s flooding has mobilized the critics of the 17km long Embankment dyke. Were local authorities aware about eminent flooding this year? Yes. Was the city prepared for this flooding? No. There are three reasons to explain why, despite early warning signs, there were NO early response modalities to deal with the flooding:

Firstly the critics of Bor Embankment dyke (some of them politicians and others senior civil servants) were NOT convinced about its importance.Secondly the state authorities had different priorities that needed funding. Repairing the dyke wasn’t one of them.Third and finally, there was leadership gap especially with states previously managed by administrators (SGs).

I don’t want to underestimate the power of this year’s flooding, but the negligence of state and Bor municipal authorities to lay down early response mechanisms for residents of Bor town has cost us dearly. If I may ask, for example, how much resources have been spent on fixing this dyke in the last few months of battling these floodings, I mean in terms of amount of money spent on fuel for running excavators or pumps, feeding volunteers, transporting them (If any), buying and transporting empty sacks, etc?

Now estimate the losses for people displaced or businesses interrupted and No taxes? Would it NOT have been cheaper to repair the dyke earlier than wait to face this crisis? In a nutshell, it’s critical to use this year’s flood experience to rally means of averting danger early being from flood, hunger, intercommunal violence, etc.

The author, Makwei ACHOL THIONG, is the former director of Training, Research and Evaluation as well as Exective Director in the Office of Mayor of Bor Municipality. He was the supervisor of Bor Embankment dyke, a project of Bor Municipality supported by UNMISS’s ROK-HMEC, Jonglei state. Reach him via makweiachol@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter: @MckweiAchol

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