Government must make our roads safe
Men pictured looking at the wreckage of the vehicles that were involved in an accident in Mabira Forest on October 22, 2021. Photos/ Derick Kissa
What you need to know:
- The government owes it to citizens of this country to ensure that roads are in a good state because they pay taxes for this infrastructure.
A story published in the Daily Monitor yesterday titled “Mabira forest road: Motorists’ highway to hell” brings to the fore the deplorable state of roads in Uganda.
These bad roads are a source of untold misery, causing accidents that claim lives and leave people with life-altering injuries.
Many children have been orphaned, women widowed and husbands bereaved by accidents on Uganda’s pothole-riddled, hardly passable roads.
Motorists are forced to perform dangerous and complicated manoeuvres while attempting to dodge potholes.
While attempting to dodge these potholes, some as big as craters, motorists are forced to drive in the wrong lane, and, unfortunately, in the process, deadly head-on collisions occur.
Whenever it rains, travelling on these roads becomes worse, with the crater-like potholes filled with water, transforming the sections of the roads into ponds.
This poses a danger to motorists who are not aware of the depth of some of these craters and attempt to drive through them, leading to accidents that cause injuries and deaths.
Motorists incur unexpected expenses of hiring breakdown trucks to extract their vehicles from craters and repair damages caused.
Motorcyclists and pedestrians routinely suffer the inconvenience of being splashed with dirty water from these ponds as cars drive by.
Frustrated locals have on several occasions resorted to planting bananas in potholes as a protest after their plea to the authorities to repair roads was not heeded.
Even when repairs are done on these roads, the process takes inexcusably long to complete and in some cases, the work is not concluded.
The government owes it to citizens of this country to ensure that roads are in a good state because they pay taxes for this infrastructure.
Ugandans have a right to enjoy travel on good roads that ensure their safety and that of their property.
Good roads are a key component of economic growth and social development. They enhance trade and ease the delivery of social services. Good roads improve livelihoods through spurring income-generating activities.
Ugandans deserve roads that do not subject them to bone-jarring journeys where they reach their destinations feeling pain all over their bodies due to running a pothole gauntlet.
Nobody should be subjected to injuries caused by accidents occasioned by bad roads. Accidents that leave them maimed, forcing them to spend hard-earned money on medical bills. It is unacceptable.
