November 4, 2012 (JUBA) – The absence of roads linking Pochala county in South Sudan's eastern Jonglei state have prompted residents to hire small planes to deliver goods from Juba, the South Sudan capital into the county.
Joseph Okello Wello, the Pochala county commissioner told Sudan Tribune the area lacks road networks since and that a company contracted in 2010 to work on it has since not delivered.
“It is two years since this company started work on the road between Akobo (north of Pochala) but nothing materialized,” said Okello in an emailed interview.
The commissioner largely attributed the delay in the completion of the roadwork to scarcity of fuel, which is also essential for the delivery of goods.
In 2007, the Governor of Jonglei state, pledged to construct road networks linking the various counties in South Sudan's most populous state, but actual work is yet to commence due to instability in the state, insufficient funds and heavy rains.
Currently, Pochala and Pibor counties – both lying east of Jonglei state's capital Bor, have no access to any major towns in South Sudan or neighbouring Ethiopia, due to lack of road connection.
Local residents, Sudan Tribune interviewed, also complained of the increasingly high costs of living, given the fact that goods, which could have been transported by road, now have to be airlifted.
(ST)