Shit hitting fans, left right and centre. TIR*

* This Is Rumbek.

This place really is starting to implode on itself. Where should I start. Hmmm, ok, how about ...

THERE IS NO FUEL.

We are waiting for a long-anticipated fuel shortage to become reality. Monday (two days away) is the prediction. We have already been rationing our fuel use across our operations and in the compound (ie reduced generator operating hours). The whole country is suffering the same fate. There is apparently very little fuel even in Juba. I have heard people filling jerry cans in Uganda and transporting them by car over the border to sell in Juba. The road conditions don't help things either (and if you read one of my earlier posts, you'll understand why): not only is there no fuel in country, but it just can't get here. It all comes by road, and the roads are currently either sticky mud, or under water. This has been a looming problem for months, easily anticipated, yet nothing has been done at a national level to solve it. We will basically have to shut down if there is no fuel. We can't do our work in Rumbek North if we can't even get there.

SHOOTING.

This time of year is when all the Dinka cattle keepers stay and keep their cows close to town because there is enough green feed around and they don't need to move them far to find it. The cows are fat and happy, and so are the people. There are a lot of celebrations going on in town, involving large crowds of Dinka gathered together for cultural activities, mostly dancing. Unfortunately, these crowds are very volatile, and it doesn't take much more than a snap of the fingers for some sort of fighting to break out. Even more unfortunately, and despite a Governor-declared 'successful disarmament of Lakes State', most of these people have guns, and aren't afraid to use them.

Over the last few weeks we have heard numerous gun shots, both during the day and in the evening. A few days ago, somewhere behind our compound, apparently near Mabor Ngap Primary School, a cultural gathering turned into chaos when someone from Cuiebet was beaten (stabbed, shot - depending on the source) for impregnating a woman from Rumbek North. This man subsequently fled and the woman's family/community was unable to find him to beat/stab/shoot him. Apparently they found him at this particular gathering and took the opportunity to get revenge. Police showed up and fired into the air to disperse the crowd.

Nearby Safari Style last week, shots were fired after fighting broke out at a large cultural gathering. Apparently drunk people seeking a lift from a passing vehicle tried to hijack it when the drivers refused, and then got their guns out. Some stories suggest the car belonged to the County Commissioner and his bodyguards subsequently returned fire. People here, particularly the cattle keepers (or so it seems), are so volatile in nature.

But it's not just the cattle keepers. A few months ago, a drunk policeman shot and killed a Ugandan trader in the market when he refused to give the officer something free (the policeman wouldn't pay for his goods). The officer swaggered off down the road in his bloodied uniform and were soon easily identified and arrested.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY...

The current economic situation in South Sudan is also not helping the situation. The government shot itself in the foot by shutting down the oil fields and the supply to the pipelines due to the conflict with the North. But this meant that 98% of their GDP was lost, and now every day South Sudanese are suffering due to the subsequent austerity measures. Not paying your civil servants, reducing their salaries or cutting their normal benefits (such as housing allowances) have become the norm.

... SO IT CAN'T PAY ITS' CIVIL SERVANTS.

Teachers, Wildlife Officers and Police are three groups that come immediately to mind. Many of them have not been paid in months. The problem with these last two groups is that THEY HAVE GUNS. A few weeks ago, two incidents highlighted how serious this problem has become. On pay day, when Wildlife Officers were in town to receive their salaries and benefits, they discovered that their salaries had been cut. They subsequently beat a senior staff member to a pulp within the Ministry of Wildlife compound - which, incidentally, is right next to our compound.

The same day, police officers were also in town to collect their salaries. They arrived to find their benefits had been completely dissolved, and subsequently went on a shooting spree. People were shot and taken to hospital. The Police Commissioner was taken hostage and not released until the next day. Gun shots carried on into the evening. Understandably, we weren't allowed to go anywhere near town, and especially not near the police headquarters.

... BUSINESS IS REALLY SUFFERING


Due to the economic downturn, local businesses are really losing out. Inflation has hit them big time. It's difficult to get goods here due to the poor road condition. The rapdily devaluing price of the South Sudanese Pound against the US dollar also hasn't helped. This country has a currency that is not accepted anywhere outside, and the Government has declared that US dollars are not allowed to be used. Inflation is huge. The average South Sudanese person cannot buy food in the market; the prices of basic commodities have sky-rocketed.

Another downside of this is that our friends who are running businesses here in Rumbek are struggling to keep afloat. The non-paid civil servants no longer have drinking money, having not been paid for months, or having missed out on their benefits. The bars are empty. People are also not staying in these more expensive hotels. This has been the case for our two favourite hang-outs here in town. Safari Style only has two permanent guests - and one of them is the manager who doesn't pay to stay there - and very few.

The manager of Afex has recently had to downsize his staff due to a lack of profits. The first to go in this case were some of the security staff. He had been arguing with the security guards for a while about 'restructuring', and it has intensified over the past few days. Yesterday it took a turn for the worse.

... AND MORE SHOOTING.

This morning the security guards ambushed his office armed with their AKs. He was able barricade himself in his office with a chair and desk. Shots were fired and the guards told him they were going to kill him. The police (SSPS) at the airport came over when they heard the commotion and gun shots, were able to remove the manager from the situation, took him to the police station where he reported the incident, and then to UNMISS where he laid low before being evacuated from Rumbek by the UN air service this afternoon. His accountant was evacuated for his own safety as well.

His parting words: "Afex currently has no manager, no accountant, and is being run by the security guards." He suggested that we all steer clear of there for a while. Yep. Advice followed.

This is not the first instance of khawaja (foreigners) being evacuated after threats to their lives from local people angry at a loss of income (for various reasons, but mostly for losing their jobs). I personally know two others to whom this has happened, and who have not come back. My good buddie Ollie gets threats to her life on a regular basis. Staff of hers that have been sacked - for very good reason, such as not coming to work for weeks on end and then turning up demanding salaries - have returned to the compound with sticks, in an extremely irate and almost crazy state, in order to beat the accountant (and often Ollie herself).

There is just such a fighting mentality amongst people here. The crazy nepotism amongst people here also means that actually firing people is very difficult, regardless of whether they deserve it. Attempt it and the Ministry of Labor will be on your ass saying 'you didn't follow protocol' - not that they even have a proper one - not to mention the people who will turn up threatening to kill you.

If you don't maintain the right conditions to attract and keep businesses operating in your community, the economic situation just gets worse. It's really getting out of control, and I'm getting more and more concerned about my own and my colleagues' personal safety in this place.

Joys of the rainy season

Access to many parts of the state has been very limited over the last few months due to rain. LOTS of it. Which means there is LOTS of mud. Our team cannot reach any of the villages in Rumbek North where we want to work, nor some in Wulu and Rumbek Centre, except for those that are along the road. Our activities have almost ground to a halt.

It's not just in Lakes State - right across South Sudan, access is a nightmare. People are stranded due to annual flooding that leaves the entire country in gridlock. Currently, Awerial County, the most eastern in Lakes State, is under water and 23,000 people have been displaced. In Upper Nile state, refugees are living in camps under water - but getting a reliable source of drinking water is almost impossible in some areas.

I was sent a map of South Sudan today from OCHA that show states and counties of South Sudan affected by flooding. It's rather grim. 29 of 49 counties are affected. That's 50%.

The yellow counties are those where emergency flood relief is ongoing. Almost all of Jonglei state is receiving flood assistance. Up in the top corner is Upper Nile state, where we are doing emergency WASH response for Sudanese refugees.

The road network all around the country is impassable in many places. Currently road access from Rumbek to Juba is almost impossible - on all three major routes. There is a country-wide fuel shortage which is being exacerbated by this situation; fuel comes in from Uganda and Kenya as South Sudan has no refineries, despite being a major oil producer (and currently the oil rigs are out of order due to ongoing North - South political conflict), but if the roads are not passable, no fuel can be transported anywhere. It also has wider ramifications for the transport of all other goods, particularly food - a majority of which is imported from Uganda. Prices in the market have sky rocketed, adding to the misery of locals already suffering from huge inflation. An apple in the market comes from Uganda (!) and costs 5SSP - which is over $1. Each one. In our case, we can't get WASH items such as parts for installing/repairing bore holes, or drilling rigs up to Lakes.

To illustrate my point, we received this update from UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) today about the state of roads in Lakes State:

-->

UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF 

SAFETY AND SECURITY (UNDSS)

 

LAKES STATE ROADS CONDITION UPDATE

21 SEPTEMBER 2012

S/NO	ROADS	STATUS
O1	Rumbek-Wulu-Mvolo-	The road between RUMBEK-WULU-MVOLO is in a quite good condition but still motorable at reduced speed.
02	Rumbek-Cuebeit -Tonj	The road is passable however with plenty pot holes
03	Rumbek-Yirol Awerial	The road from AWERIAL to YIROL has many road cuts because of strong water current. The government is working to fix the road in some points The road from YIROL to RUMBEK there is many points on the road where the flooded water washed out parts of the road especially between Yirol and Aluak luak.
04	Rumbek-Maper-Bentiu	The road is very bad at the last 10kms to Maper

 

And some actual illustrations ...

Awerial - Yirol road

 Rumbek - Mvolo road

 

Rumbek - Yirol road

 

In Upper Nile, the road between Jamam and Gendrassa refugee camps was breached when I was there in August. This used to be a road ...

 

 

I was rather pleasantly surprised at how quickly UN-OPS got onto fixing this. Probably something to do with UNHCR food drops not being able to reach refugees in Gendrassa camp. They were without food for 6 entire days. Eeesh.

So, we wait. Wait for it to stop raining. Wait for the flood waters to recede. Wait for water to evaporate. Wait for road repairs. And wait for the proverbial shit to hit the fan when the fuel runs out.

A little update on some not-so-little leopards

So, things aren’t looking good for Baxter and Lulu.

They had been in the compound at Safari Style for a few months, growing bigger and stronger every day and were slowly being weaned off their special leopard milk formula. Escape attempts were being made, trees were being climbed and the poor dik-diks and dikers in the compound were getting a workout from the voracious little cubs, who very clearly had lost none of their natural hunting instincts.

The potential home that had been found for them in a private wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, near Tsavo East National Park, had unfortunately fallen through due to a lack of agreement from the Kenyan Wildlife Service to take them. The papers were signed on the South Sudan side, but not on the Kenyan. Plan B was for them to go to South Africa in a similar way, through a wildlife contact Ollie had – the support and offers were coming in thick and fast for various organisations to assist with relocating them. There was even an offer from a woman in Uganda who wanted to set up her own wildlife sanctuary and wanted the leopards. Not likely.

A majority of the groundwork to relocate the leopards had been done by my friend here in Rumbek; unlike WCS, who had agreed to be responsible for the process of getting them out of the country and properly protected, but had failed to actually do anything. You would think that the official partner organisation of the South Sudanese Government, tasked with setting up the network of national parks across the country, building ranger stations and training rangers, would have the interests of very rare and highly endangered African wildlife at the heart of their existence; but they showed nothing more than indifference to the whole situation, even joking that they were better off knocking them on the head because they wouldn’t survive anyway. Nice. Ever thought of actually giving a damn?

Regardless of a complete lack of support from WCS, South Africa was looking promising. South Sudan had agreed to release the leopards; perhaps they knew full well that they didn’t have the capacity to protect them here and were under growing pressure from wildlife organisations to do so – or get them out. A wildlife sanctuary in South Africa with an experienced, passionate owner that already had leopards in his care was prepared to take them, which came with the blessing of their government.

With the adopted mother of the cubs scheduled to go on leave, a new temporary home needed to be found for them. Some friends at WCS agreed to take care of the leopards in their compound in Juba, so they were transferred. And this was where it all started going wrong.

While the carers clearly became very attached to their new charges, they were clearly very happy with their new found popularity once word got out in Juba that there were two leopard cubs in their midst. Every man and his dog was invited to come and play with the leopards, which we were pretty annoyed about considering how careful we had been about limiting human interaction with them, wanting to keep them as wild as possible (even though inevitably they would lose some of their ‘wildness’ given how young they had come into our care and the length of time they were kept in captivity; but this is why we were so keen to get them out ASAP). They did continue to grow however, and their appetites with them; at last report, consuming a goat a week between them. Awesome! I don’t think our friends at WCS were prepared for the out of pocket expenses that came with their babysitting...

But then the South Sudanese Government suddenly back-flipped on their commitment to relocate the leopards and decided to keep them in the country. I’m sure someone had a word in the ear of the big people in the Ministry of Wildlife at just how valuable a couple of highly endangered big cats were. The next thing we knew, Wildlife Officers (essentially army guys with AK47s) turned up at the WCS compound and demanded the leopards be handed over.

To the WCS guys’ bemusement, the soldiers had turned up with a dual cab pick-up, and were planning on putting the leopards in the back seat, while they drove in the front. No cage in which to put the leopards; what would you need that for?! To the bemusement of the soldiers and the WCS guys, one of the leopards then escaped through the back window, which had been left open, and went and hid under the house. The soldiers looked at each other, not knowing what to do, and then told the WCS guys to get it out for them. Not likely. Get it yourself buddy!

I wish I had been a fly on the wall in that vehicle on their drive back to the Juba Ministry of Wildlife compound. I bet those soldiers were swiped a few times, not only by the terrible drunk drivers on the Juba roads (their fellow soldiers and policemen) but also by a couple of big paws – with sharp claws to boot.

From there we lost track of the leopards. Which has been heart breaking.

Various stories were reported about their whereabouts; the first one being that the cubs were transported to an orphaned antelope (!) sanctuary (free daily lunch for some growing cats?) in Kajo Keji, between Juba and the Ugandan border. The other was that they remained in the Wildlife Ministry compound in Juba. Either way, the whole issue had become VERY political, and neither WCS nor anyone else was allowed anywhere near either location. In my efforts to find out, I contacted a South Sudanese-Australian from Kajo Keji whom I knew via a friend at home, and was told in no uncertain terms that I was very unwelcome to visit Kajo Keji and that this issue was highly controversial.

I remain extremely worried that the following thing(s) have either happened, or will happen, to these beautiful leopards.

1. They are illegally trafficked over the border, making some South Sudanese government officials very wealthy men;
2. They are sold either domestically or internationally as pets, or to an illegal sanctuary;
3. They are killed for their skins; or
4. They end up in cages in a South Sudan Wildlife Ministry or private compound somewhere, making money from paying “tourists” for the rest of their lives.

I just wish we could find out where they are.

Sadly, wildlife are not high on the priority list of anyone here in a country still recovering from war, that struggles to feed itself and to deal with major corruption. They’re not excuses though. There are enough organisations working here that can and should prevent things like this happening. Yes, WCS, I’m looking at you.

Targeting WASH aid

Thought this was an interesting Devex article about targeting Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) aid to countries that need it most:

Quenching the developing world’s thirst

By Ivy Mungcal on 29 August 2012 

A woman drinks from a public fountain at a village in Assab, Eritrea. Photo by: Jean-Paul Heerschap / EuropeAid

"Progress toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation are off track. The United Nations itself has predicted: These targets will not be met by the internationally agreed-upon deadline in 2015.

Lack of progress in this area can be attributed to various factors, including poor policies and the low priority afforded water and sanitation projects compared with those in other areas of development. That’s not to say donors are not spending on efforts to improve the developing world’s access to clean drinking water and sanitation."

... and the article goes on.

According to OECD, Japan was the top spender on water and sanitation projects in 2010, the last year comprehensive data is available. It committed a total of $2.1 billion in bilateral aid and multilateral contributions to the sector. The next top spender was Germany ($1.1 billion), followed by France ($775.4 million). Other countries in the top 10 donors to the water and sanitation sector were the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea and Denmark.

The top country that received development assistance targeting water and sanitation issues in 2010 was Iraq. Following that were Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan. Sub-Saharan African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Senegal also received significant amounts.

However, what struck me most was that this list does not match the list of countries with the highest number of people lacking access to water and sanitation. According to the United Nations, China is home to the most people lacking safe drinking water. China is followed by India, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Indonesia. and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Sudan and Kenya round out the top 10.

India, meanwhile, tops the list of places with the highest number of people without proper sanitation. Also on the list are China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So why is it that WASH-related aid is not targeted to the most needy countries?

Not really a simple question to answer. Politics plays a big role. Governments provide aid to resource rich but economically poor counties (like South Sudan) in order to get those resources. Some governments won't give to countries if they support terrorists, no matter whether they've had the biggest earthquake in history.
Countries within your region are more likely to receive aid from your Government (take Australia as an example; a majority of its AusAid funding goes to Asia Pacific countries, although regions such as Africa and South Asia are receiving increasing amounts). And there are many other reasons that I don't know about or are too many to mention here.

But we should be using these figures related to the most WASH-needy countries to target our WASH aid. It just makes sense. How we do it ... save that discussion for another day.


The full link for this article is at:
http://www.devex.com/en/news/quenching-the-developing-world-s-thirst/79022?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojvKvLZKXonjHpfsX64ukoUae1lMI/0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CSMdlI/qLAzICFpZo2FFcH/aQZA%3D%3D