Govt to construct 159,529km roads under PDM

Government has launched its second critical pillar for its Parish Development Model (PDM) designed to improve the economy.

Through the infrastructure and economic services pillar, the government will seek to improve community access roads, establish and upgrade community markets, electrification and increase mineral exploitation as well as commit to value addition through industrialization.

Under the arrangement, government also hopes to sustainably provide water, increase internet coverage and promote integrated planning to facilitate planned settlement.

“In a bid to improve road transport, the government through this program will construct and rehabilitate at least 159, 529 roads which include 21,020Km for national roads, 38,603 district roads, 2,103 KCCA roads, 1,330 city roads, 4850 municipal council roads and 79,948 community access roads,” the ministry of works and transport explained.

According to the pillar’s manual, a sizable percentage of Uganda’s roads are in poor state. Only 69 per cent of district roads and 50 per cent of the urban roads are in fair to good condition, with some areas not covered by any form of connectivity due to inadequate funding. The newly announced pillar will be poised to address such concerns.

Additionally, Uganda is moving to add on its 38 community markets in a development expected to increase production and marketing of agricultural commodities to enhance the incomes of vendors, increase employment and revenue generation for Local Governments.

“That is the importance of this pillar; to expand our market sector especially for locally produced goods,” Tony Kavuma, the chief Mechanical engineer at the woks ministry said during the launch of the pillar which ios also expected to push access to safe water from 70 per cent to 85 per cent (rural) and 74 percent to 100 percent (urban).

The pillar also covers increasing access to basic sanitation (with at least an improved toilet) from 19 per cent to 40 per cent and hand washing from 34 per cent to 50 per cent.

Government also bids to increase the capacity of water for production storage from 41.12 MCM to 60.3 MCM by 2026 in order to support irrigation development and utilization for sustainable agriculture and increase incomes and employment opportunities.

Electrification

Furthermore, the pillar aims at extending energy facilities to communities to ensure availability of electricity in each parish.  The percentage of households with access to electricity is also expected to increase from 24 per cent in 2018/19 to 60 per cent.

Increase electricity consumption per capita (kWh per capita) from 78.5kWh in FY 2018/19 to 578kWh and increase electricity generation capacity from 1252.3MW to 3500MW,

Others include, reducing share of biomass Energy used for cooking from 85 percent in FY 2018/19 to 50 percent, increasing percentage of adoption of energy efficient technologies from 30 percent to 50 percent across all consumer categories, and Increase transmission capacity of High voltage transmission lines from 2,354km in 2018/19 to 4,354km.

The project is approximately to cover the construction of 3,839.68 km of 33kv Medium voltage (MV) lines, Construction of 5,921 km of 0.4kv low voltage (LV) Networks; Installation of 3,401 distribution transformers (Mounted on poles); and Connection of 168,335 single phase consumers and 4,254 three phase consumers.

This pillar also looks at enhancing access to basic communication services by all Ugandans using available technologies to at least 98% geographical coverage from the current 90 percent.

Other project programs under the second pillar include, improving factories/industries, health facilities, schools, hotels, worship centers, skilling centers, rehabilitation centers, agricultural farms, proper waste management systems, and green areas, among others.

‘Not only the rich’

On Thursday, works minister Gen Katumba Wamala clarified that there will be no special budget for PDM but rallied all government agencies align their work plans to the PDM activities.

“Please note that PDM is for all Ugandans, rich and poor, hence the need for all Ugandans to participate and ensure the success of this development strategy” he added.

There are seven pillars under the parish development model, and they include agriculture, financial inclusion, infrastructure and economic services, social services, mindset change and community mobilization, parish-based management system, and governance and administration.

In her speech presented by Gen Katumba Wamala, Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja noted that: “It is important to have other PDM Pillars visible to the public so that their impact is appreciated by the target beneficiaries and the entire county.”