Yumbe has only half a kilometre of tarmac

Residents and leaders in Yumbe have decried the poor state of the roads in the district, which they say is hindering business.
The residents and leaders said the only tarmacked road in the district is a 0.6km stretch on Awule Road in Yumbe Town Council. The road connects to the Yumbe-Terego-Arua road which is managed by the Uganda National Roads Authority Road (Unra).
The district has a total of 39.9km of roads.
In an interview with Daily Monitor at the weekend, Mr Ratib Anguza, a businessman in Yumbe Town Council, said transporting goods is difficult. 
“I have business premises where I operate a store. There are foodstuffs like maize flour, cassava flour, 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 said. 
He called on the government to tarmac the roads in the district. 
Ms Afisa Adiru, a local restaurant operator in Yumbe Town, said during the dry season, they face a lot of problems due to too much dust. 
“We try as much as possible to cover the food but still some dust gets through,” she said.
Ms Anifa Candiru, a resident of Yumbe Town Council, said there have been several road accidents on the roads. 
She said transporting expectant mothers to the health facilities takes a long time due to the poor state of the roads.
“Such delays may result in delivery of the baby on the way or it may result in the death of both the mother and the baby,” she said. 
Mr Abakar Aduku, a resident of Yumbe East Village, said it is embarrassing that many of the roads in the town are not tarmacked. 
“… tarmacking of the roads would have been one of the infrastructural promises made by the government as a sign of appreciation to the people of Yumbe District,” he said. 
About the 0.6km tarmacked stretch
The Yumbe District engineer, Mr Bernard Ayimani, said the tarmacking of the 0.6km stretch of road was an initiative of the Uganda Road Fund . 
He said it was part of a plan to tarmac 1km of each of the urban roads in the district.
“If you compare the 0.6km tarmacked road with the total of 39.9km roads in Yumbe town council, there is a lot to be done.  For better business and appearance of the town, we need more funding to increase the number of km of tarmacked roads in the district,” he said.
The Yumbe Town Council engineer, Mr Habibu Yassin, the plan to tarmac the road was made in the financial year 2014/2015 and was expected to be completed in the financial year 2015/2016. Unra was expected to fund the project. 
Similar projects were undertaken in Zombo, Moyo, Adjumani, and Otuke districts among others. 
“The town councils that benefited from the pilot project were each allocated Shs400m to tarmac a 1km road but depending on the conditions and the nature of the roads like in some towns, roads are narrow and also the terrain differs made the prices vary by the close of the project,” he said. 
He added: “Since Yumbe roads are wider, the funds allocated to Yumbe Town Council were not enough to complete the works. At some point, we were directed to use part of the releases to complete the 0.6-kilometre stretch. So, an additional Shs400m was allocated and the total cost of tarmacking the road rose to Shs800m.” 
Mr Adam Angoliga, the town clerk of Yumbe Town Council, said they don’t have a plan to tarmac more roads because they receive meagre funds from the Uganda Road Fund. 
He said they receive about Shs80 million or less per quarter. 
“We plan to lobby from Unra to tarmac for us some of the roads in Yumbe Town Council if the project of tarmacking of Koboko-Yumbe-Moyo road starts including the Yumbe-Terego-Manibe road to be done by the Japanese.