Leaders decry encroachment on road reserves

Technical leaders in Tororo District have expressed concern over the rampant encroachment on road reserves in the district.
The district superintendent of works, Mr Andrew Asaya, told Daily Monitor that most of the road reserves have been greatly affected by human activities, including settlements.
“The rate at which road reserves have been abused is alarming. A big chuck of road reserves have been tempered with,” he said.
Mr Asaya, who reiterated his fears while appearing before the district roads committee at the weekend, said as a result canals along the roads that would help drain water have ended up being blocked.
“I appeal to the committee to come up with a by-law that would compel those abusing road reserves to be subjected to disciplinary action in order to mitigate the encroachment,” he said.
He added that culprits have gone ahead to destroy trees that were planted along road reserves by contractors as compulsory component embedded in the contract deed.
Inadequate funds
He, however, urged the area Members of Parliament (MPs) to advocate for an increment of Uganda Road Fund quarterly releases to local governments, saying the current figures allocated is inadequate to handle the big road network.
Mr Richard Othieno Okoth, the MP for Budama North, who is also the chairperson of district roads committee, however, blamed the district council for taking long to act and end the vice of encroachment.
“The district council would have acted a long time ago to stop this but it’s unfortunate that they did not,” he said.
But he commended the district council for its effort to ensure that most road sections are motorable and encouraged the engineering department to continue coming up with new innovations to ensure that roads are motorable.
The State minister of Health in-charge of General Duties, Ms Sarah Achieng Opendi also urged the district council to consider concentrating resources in accordance to the status of the road.
“This will safeguard the district from scattering resources to areas which may not result in any positive impact,” Ms Opendi, who is also the the district Woman Member of Parliament, said.
She blamed poor condition of some road section to poor workmanship and encouraged the district to always consider competent firms that have good reputation to undertake any road works.
“Some of our roads are in bad state because of poor workmanship. I appeal to the district to consider firms with good reputation,” she said.