Japanese Embassy Hands Over Juba-Nabari Community Road
Elisabeth Janaina
Japanese Embassy Hands Over Juba-Nabari Community Road
Embassy of Japan, Central Equatoria State (CES) Ministry of Physical Infrastructure (MOPI), and United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) on Thursday marked the completion of Juba Na-Bari Community Road rehabilitation project.
Juba November 22, 2013 (Gurtong) The handover ceremony conducted on the same day was attended by Takeshi Akamatsu, the Japanese Ambassador to South Sudan, Simon Mijok Mijak, Deputy Minister of Transport, Roads and Bridges, Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative of Secretary-General, UNMISS, Christopher Sarafino, Mayor of Juba City, Col. Harutoshi Tsuchiya, Commander of UNMISS’ Japanese Contingent and Atsushi Hanatani, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) South Sudan.
“Today, I stand here as a newly appointed Japanese Ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan, to officially greet the people of South Sudan. On behalf of the Government of Japan, I would like to congratulate MOPI and all those who stood behind this project including JICA South Sudan for your joint achievement,” Akamatsu said at the handover of the Juba Nabari Community Road on Thursday.
He added: “I would like to express my special gratitude to UNMISS contingent for their great engineering performance and tireless work even on the weekends with the shining blue helmets and little Japanese flag on their back, which I hope will always be remembered by the community.”
The Juba Na-Bari Community Road project, worth over US$1m is a community-based infrastructure project funded by the Government of Japan as a Grant Assistance for Grassroots and Human Security Project (GGP).
It was jointly implemented by MOPI and UNMISS Japanese Contingent Engineer Company with special technical advisory support from JICA.
Na Bari community had been suffering from heavy rain and flood due to its topography on lowland and lack of drainage system, which caused extensive damages to the roads and houses while limiting the mobility of people and affecting the local community with water-borne diseases, thus hindering their economic productivities and opportunities for livelihood improvement.
The Project was designed to tackle those challenges by rehabilitating 1.7km of Na-Bari road with improved drainage system to ease the floods and strengthen the community’s resilience to water-related disasters.
The rehabilitated road with drainage will benefit at least 3,500 households living in the community with the improved mobility, sanitation, resilience to flood, and economic opportunities. Attendants of the handover ceremony praised the special joint achievement between Japan, MOPI and UNMISS, and shared the importance of the sustainable use of the road and drainage under strong ownership of MOPI and local community.