US funds road repairs in the south

The United States has given the UN World Food Programme (WFP) US $6.5 million towards the reconstruction of roads and dykes in southern Sudan. WFP said the US contribution was part of a $19.4 million project to effect the emergency repair of 1,000 km of roads. The roads to be repaired include the a 580-km corridor from Kaya, on the border with Uganda, to Rumbek (in Al-Buhayrat State). Also to benefit from this project is the 300-km stretch from Narus on the Kenyan border to Juba (in Bahr al-Jabal State), it said. The project also covers the repair of 100 dykes "directly linked to the road infrastructure". Tesema Negash, the WFP country director for Kenya, who also supervises activities in southern Sudan, said in a statement on Wednesday: "We are very grateful to the United States for this generous contribution. The rehabilitation of roads is key to the future development of southern Sudan, which in peacetime depends to a great degree on the existence of a proper road network." The repair of the road system will deliver a number of benefits, according to the statement. It will reduce the cost of delivering food aid to the population in southern Sudan. Moreover, 80 per cent of the 7,000 mt of food aid being delivered to southern Sudan every month is transported by air; using road transport "will cut the cost at least 40 per cent". Improved roads would also result in other economic benefits, such as allowing for easier movement of people and goods, thereby allowing for locally produced goods to reach markets at a lower cost, said WFP. Equally important, adequate roads would facilitate the return and reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons, who were likely to return once a peace deal was signed, it added. "We are very proud to cooperate with WFP in such a decisive project for the future of southern Sudan," the statement said, quoting Roger Winter, the assistant administrator of USAID. "This is a first indication of the dividend peace will bring to the people of Sudan." Repairing dykes will protect the roads and help to promote agricultural production in an area where regular flooding severely affects crops. WFP had so far raised $14.4 million, "but a further US $3 million is urgently needed to complete the works before the expected start of the rainy season at the end of May", it said. The statement noted that $5 million worth of equipment, including graders, excavators, bulldozers, compactors, tipper trucks and tractors, had already been purchased for the project and were being used on sites. "Once the project is completed, the equipment will be donated to the new Sudanese authority for the south, for the further reconstruction of the regional road network," it added.