UETCL to relocate 7oo graves for power line

The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) has embarked on negotiations with clans and cultural leaders in Acholi and West Nile sub-regions to relocate 777 graves along the corridor on which the electricity transmission line should be built.

On July 23, government and developers signed a contract for the construction of the transmission line which aims to extend reliable and quality power supply to West Nile and Northern Uganda.

The 132-kilivolts transmission line spanning 294 kilometres from Kole-Lira-Gulu-Arua is set to terminate electricity power drawn from Nyagak and Karuma dams to West Nile region.

Last week, the Energy ministry and UETCL officials visited the project areas to introduce the contractors to the leaders of the project districts as the government prepares to hand over the sites to the contractors next week.

But the power transmission body (UETCL) says it is currently challenged by a hurdle to relocate the graves prior to handing over the sites to the contractors.

“We have identified a total of 777 graves throughout the power corridor from Gulu to Arua that have to be relocated. The biggest numbers are in Gulu. These were victims of Ebola and the insurgency,” Ms Pamela Byoruganda, the UETCL spokesperson, told Daily Monitor.

“We are now engaging the leaders and cultural authorities in the project district to agree on how to urgently relocate these graves,” she said.

Mr Augustine Ojara, an elder at the council of Koro clan in Gulu, said there are two gravesites within the area alone, one within the power corridor and another at the proposed site for the establishment of a switchyard.
“Besides compensating for the land, we are negotiating with them to facilitate us to do the relocation in a dignified manner,” Mr Ojara said.

According to UETCL, up to 75 per cent of the total 3,333 people affected by the project have been compensated whereas the 25 per cent have been listed as absentee landlords, graveyards, land disputes, as well as re-evaluation cases.

Financed using $100 million loan from the World Bank, it will be built by KEC International Limited (India) and a joint venture of AVIC International Holding Corporation and Central Southern China Electric Power design Institute Company Limited for a period of two years.

For decades, the West Nile region has been dependent on thermal power generated by West Nile Rural Electrification Company (Wenreco).
“We shall have substations at Lira. Kole will be a switchyard, Gulu, Nebbi and Arua will also have substations,” Ms Byoruganda said.

Government reacts
The Investment minister, Ms Evelyn Anite, welcomed the move to build the transmission line, saying the extension of the grid to West Nile will attract more investors to the region.

She said using a generator for factories such as Leaf Tobacco, which processes tobacco, was difficult and had threatened “to close at one point because the power tariffs were so high and the electricity was unreliable”.

[email protected]