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South Sudan

Korea Engineers repair "boggy" Bor-Juba road

13 October 2014 - Seeking to improve a vital route connecting Bor, Jonglei State, with the South Sudanese capital Juba, UNMISS South Korean engineers have been repairing the road for several weeks.

Speaking from the Koreans’ Bor office, Public Information Officer Jin Wan Park said they began working on the road, the only land route connecting the two capitals, on 1 September. Repairs should be complete before the end of the year.

“The completion of this road will help facilitate the movement of people and goods and provision of services to the people of Jonglei State,” he said, adding that good roads were critical for socio-economic development.

“It takes travelers more than 10 hours to travel 100 kilometers by car, as the (nature of the) soil absorbs rain water and becomes boggy like a swamp,” he said. “It will now take them approximately three hours once it is completed.”

The muddy road surface would not pose a huge challenge to the engineers, as they had spent three months training on road reconstruction and researching South Sudan’s soil prior to their deployment, he said.

“Once accomplished,” the officer said, “the road will mark a significant pace in reducing wastage of time, effort and resources.” The highway would also further link South Sudan to neighbouring countries like Kenya and Ethiopia.

Out of 194 kilometers of road from Bor to Juba, 125 kilometers – as far as Mangalla payam of Juba County -- were being rebuilt by 40 to 60 Korean engineers each day, he said. The remaining 69 kilometers would be completed by the Bangladesh engineering unit based in Juba.

Military engineer Capt. Sangji Lee confirmed that the team had already completed 41 kilometers of the road assigned to them, covering nearly 30 per cent of the total distance.

Capt. Lee said the first stage of road repair was to level it using ordinary soil. The second and final stages would include fixing the drainage system and pouring marram (red earth used to harden the road surface) over it for durability purposes.

“We project that the finishing of the construction work will cut the already skyrocketing prices at Bor market by nearly half,” said another engineer, Cpt. Jaehoon Choi.

Before road work began, Mr. Choi said the engineers had also been carrying out considerable maintenance work on Bor airstrip.

They had also developed a waste disposal site for the state government and provided water for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in UNMISS camps. And the Korean’s medical team had treated 10,000 patients suffering from various ailments.

Korean engineers also helped build 17 kilometers of embankment last year along the White Nile to control rising flood waters. This year, they erected a three-meter high perimetre berm wall around a new Protection of Civilians site for Bor IDPs within the UNMISS compound.

Information Officer Park noted that the state government had provided 60 security personnel (both police personnel and soldiers) to protect the engineers.

The road reconstruction project followed a request to UNMISS by the state government, which led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding last August.