South Sudan capital dreams of Nile boom-town status after years of war

On the steamy banks of the Nile, busy modern docks and gleaming giant warehouses bustle with boats, while businessmen relax in the luxurious green gardens of a five-star luxury hotel.
Welcome to boom-time in the capital of the new autonomous southern Sudan, a war-ravaged, chronically underdeveloped state still reeling from a bloody north-south civil war that ended last year.
Alas, for the battered city of Juba, it is only an architect's model.
The ambitious 80-million-dollar (63-million euro) project is but a dream of Kuwaiti investors hoping to rebuild the riverport and construct the hotel complex in the oil-rich region.
Yet many believe the vision will become a reality as Juba and its environs recover from the 21-year conflict between Khartoum and the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army that now governs here.
"There are great things to come," says Faraj Juma Zaied, who is co-ordinating the project between the government and the Al-Masoud International Group. "This will transform Juba."
There is no doubt that, if it happens, the 40-million dollar, 450-room hotel, 30-million dollar freight and passenger port and 10-million dollar fishing facility, will have a massive impact on the region. But on the ground, the plans are still far from implementation.
Down the Kuwaiti's dream of a four-lane highway - still a mud road crowded with bicycles, ramshackle trucks and expensive aid workers' four-wheel drives - a few simple boats rest on a peaceful riverbank. Jungle has largely reclaimed the port, with the neglected river channel now 20 meters (yards) from the dock and a rusty crane used only by goats for shade and children as a soccer goal post.
Although Juba, a former government garrison town, is better off than many rural areas that saw the heaviest fighting, it lacks basic infrastructure, including water and sewage systems, paved roads and reliable power. Transport is key to development in the landlocked state. Without the river and roads, often impassable due to floods, broken bridges, landmines or the risk of bandits, most goods have to be flown in.