Water traders defiant as prices soar

The deal between the Juba City Legislative Assembly and the water tankers and the water companies for reducing the prices of water in town has failed following the challenges raised by the two bodies of water associations.

The two institutions providing clean drinking water in town said they could not reduce the prices of water because of the too much expenses that include high prices of spare parts for maintenance of their vehicles and daily collection of fees by the traffic police as well as high prices of fuel.

This was raised after Juba City Legislative Assembly summoned the Water tankers and Company’s Association last week.

“We want these two associations to be together with Juba City Council to monitor daily prices of fuel and spare parts and the chemical for water purification because the dollar is going up on a daily basis and all these things are very expensive in the market,” said Eng.  Amare Gheberab, Chairperson of Water Tankers during the summoned.

“We need the committee formed first see where we have challenges so that we can be able to agree on the prices of water,” he added.

He said there is need to break town the expenses so that they could see how they can reduce the prices of water without being cheated

“We have to break down everything so that we see nobody is cheated because we are also doing the business and we do not want too much loses,” he said.

 In February this year Juba City Legislative Assembly has issued the local order regulating the prices of water to avoid complain by the residents go Juba over high prices of water in town

In the order Juba City Council has provided Juba into six (6) zones with different prices of water

Prices shoot

Zone 1, which includes areas nearby River Nile was supposed to sell at 300 SSP per drum but now it goes for SSP 500. Around Atlabara and other residential areas in Juba, was is supposed to be sold at SSP 350 but now goes for SSP 600. Around Jebel and Gudelle 1 and Munuki it was supposed to be sold at SSP 400 now it is sold at SSP 700 per drum. Areas around Hai Check point, Gudele two and Hai Lokwilili prices are supposed to be sold at SSP500 but it has now been raised to SSP 800, area around Hai Baraka, Jebel Yesua and Lemon Gaba it is supposed to be sold at SSP 600 but is now sold at SSP 900  and Hai Kapuri it is supposed to be sold at SSP 600 nowadays is at SSP 1000.

The Chairman Water Company (water purifications companies), Peter Yuku said that their companies give water to the water tankers at SSP 60,000 per drum which is cheaper considering the current economic situation in the country.

“Our challenges is similar to the water tankers but our is more because we are paying a lot of taxes and we are buying the  chemical   for water purification in dollar not in pound .Road leading to the water point we are the one doing the maintenance,” said Yuku

“We are giving them water per drum at sixty South Sudanese Pound, even if they sold at three hundred South Sudanese Pound they can still have some profit,” he added.

However, Chairperson Juba City Legislative Assembly, Peter Loro Paulino said that this week they are going to formed the committee from Juba City Council and the water companies and tankers that would be tasked to into the challenges facing the companies so that they can come with the reasonable prices of the water according to the zones.

“We did not come out with the fixed prices of water because the two associations of water raised some of the challenges and we have agreed that the committee will be formed so that they can come out with an amicable solution of water prices,” said Loro.