By Malek Arol Dhieu (Guest)
Since the Jonglei Canal’s resumption was announced, there has been an unusual argument between proposers and opposers about whether or not the resumption would be allowed. However, the weighing scale seems to drop in favor of the opposers because the repercussions of the canal outmaneuver the benefits and so, opposers have abandoned singing other songs they used to sing before, but ventured into singing the song of ‘NO, NO for Jonglei Canal’s construction, giving a very concerning reason that “it jeopardizes our people’s lives”. When the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced the resumption of Jonglei Canal’s construction and set itself in motion to implement it, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry never even skipped a day coming out at daylight to hint to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of the negative impacts that would be caused by the canal when constructed. As experts in the environment have already aired out the present and future repercussions of the canal after the host communities have already reacted and protested against the canal’s resumption, the Jonglei Canal construction is going to be a bone of contention between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and opposers, including the host communities as the lead opposers. There should be a medium of communication among the ministries, particularly, the concerned ministries about the Jonglei Canal development so as not to involve the citizens in an unhealthy argument that looks like it is left in their hands to decide on it. It should have been decided at once by the concerned ministries so that when they come out to implement it and the citizens oppose it, then it should now be the citizens versus the government, not the citizens plus some segments of the government versus some citizens and other segments of the government. The issue has gone chaotic and viral and soon, negative entailments shall be expected.
