Govt set to tarmac West Nile road

In the last five years of business, Mr Adinan Dina, a driver in Yumbe District, says he has spent more than Shs3 million repairing his vehicle after using the Yumbe-Terego-Arua road.

Mr Adinan says the road has become nearly impassable. 

“Sometimes you regret driving on this road. I am using this route because there are few taxis and due to pressing family needs. Sometimes, you ask yourself whether our taxes are translated into services like good roads which we have demanded for a long time,” he says.  

Mr Ratib Anguza, a businessman in Yumbe Town Council, says the poor state of Yumbe-Terego-Arua Road is affecting the transportation of goods.

“We spend a lot of time with our goods on the way due to bad roads and also when vehicles develop mechanical problems, we sometimes spend between two and three days on the road until the mechanical problem is fixed. This makes the perishable goods rot and exposes other goods to the bad weather that makes them go bad,” he says. 

“I operate a store selling food products like maize flour, cassava flour and beans, among others. These are eatables that need to be sold in an environment that’s not hazardous but because of too much dust in town, whatever we sell is always contaminated with dust,” he says.

He urged the government to repair the road which is filled with deep gulleys, bumps and is narrow in some sections.

However, authorities say the government has secured funding to tarmac the Yumbe-Terego-Arua Road.

Mr Bernard Ayimani, the Yumbe District engineer, says the length of the road to be tarmacked is 23.5km from Yumbe to Ore Bridge at the Yumbe-Terego border.

He says the money for the project was released in 2020 but the works stalled until 2023, adding that the value of the money has since gone down.

“I am worried that since the value for the money has dropped, the work may not be done as planned covering 23.5km. It is likely that about 14.8km will be covered if there is no additional funding,” he says.

“The compensation of the project-affected persons is at 96 percent but there are those that are not compensated because of land conflicts. So, it is their lawyers handling their issues and the pending issues can’t affect the project,” he adds.

Mr Hamiza Faruku, a project-affected person in Mijale Village, Yumbe District, says he has been fully compensated.

“I received Shs12 million as compensation so, I have no complaint as regards the assessment done on the land and property that’s going to be affected in this project. We shall be happy to see that the project starts in August and is completed so that movement becomes easy,” he says.

The manager of transport planning at the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), Mr Edward Byaruhanga, says: “The land acquisition is a key component of such a big project and we believe everything would be well for the people and this creates employment opportunities in the area.”

Mr Rashid Ojoatre, the assistant chief administration officer, who is also a member of the road project committee, says a notice has been issued about the plan to start tarmacking the road but the contract has not yet been awarded.

“The process of awarding the contract has just started. Between August 15 and 25, the contractor will be secured. So the issue of the contract sum and the contract period will be determined that time,” he says.

At the inception of the proposed tarmacking in February 2020, Mr Isaac Wani, an engineer at Unra, said a committee in the Office of the Prime Minister presented several roads to be constructed in this project but the funds from World Bank were limited.

He said the Kulikulinga to Adjumani road via Obongi was one of the roads prioritised for construction because of its significance in providing services to the refugees while the Yumbe to Arua Road via Terego is also set to be worked on.

“We can’t construct all the roads in this project but other development partners like JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency] are considering tarmacking the Yumbe-Arua Road. They will do a section of it from Yumbe to river Ore which is about 73 km,” he said.

He added: “There is a facility under World Bank called window 19 which the Office of the Prime Minister is pursuing to see that some of these roads are included under that facility and discussions will be done to that effect.”

In Moyo, the African Development Bank said it is committed to offering loans to support the government in constructing Laropi-Omi Bridge and the road link to the Jale border point with South Sudan.

The team leader for African Development Bank, Mr George Makajuma, said: “We will do whatever we can within the constraints of the budget. The bridge and the road we will do jointly but once procurement is done. We have seen the needs of this place.”

Background

The project to rehabilitate a section of the Yumbe-Terego-Arua Road began in February 2020 with the disclosure of the resettlement action plan.

The procurement of the contractor was supposed to be done by July 2020 and the works were expected to start in July 2021. However, the works are set to start this month.

Compiled by Robert Elema, Clement Aluma & Scovin Iceta