Legislators from Lango Sub-Region have urged Government to tarmac a number of badly affected roads in the area.
The MPs made this appeal while meeting the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Executive Director Allen Kagina at the country home of Otuke West MP Paul Omara.
Felix Okot Ogong (Dokolo South MP) disclosed that residents of the nine districts are unhappy about the existing road network.
“For the last thirty years we have only added 50 kilometres in Lango and that is from Dokolo up to Lira, from there nothing else. We used to have Lira to Kamdini which is now bad, so generally we don’t have any tarmac in other parts of Lango,” he observed.
Ogong added that the districts of Amolatar, Dokolo, Otuke, Kole, Oyam and Apac are interlinked by a single road.
“So if you are to do something just connect these routes and tarmac them. That is like 200 kilometers…The basis can be $200 million,” Ogong pleaded.
The Chairperson of the Lango Parliamentary Group (LPG) Judith Alyek re-echoed the same sentiments saying East Lango has for long been marginalized.
“The road coming from Rwenkunye via Apac, Lira covers West Lango. Then another road which comes from Kamdini, Lira and proceeds to Tororo is also in West Lango,” Alyek illustrated.
Yesterday’s meeting came at the climax of a day long tour which saw Kagina inspect roads which were recently submerged by floods.
Some of the most affected sections include; Chakwara-Katangira junction, Chakwara-Anamido road, Kachung water works and Amolatar-Ochero-Cwagere-Kwera to Dokolo road section.
On her part, Kagina promised to dispatch a team of experts to analyse and devise solutions for the submerged roads.
“Eng. Ogik (Alfred) the Head of Road Development is going to call Kampala so that another team of hydrologists and planners also come and see what strategy we can take,” she committed.
Kagina elaborated that this cautious approach is necessary given that the weather pattern has ‘significantly’ changed.
“When floods come they are supposed to subside. They don’t take us a month or two. That means something has changed which means the strategy we are using must also change,” she explained.
Kagina added that much as they intend to grade damaged areas, this can only take place when water levels have depreciated.
“In UNRA when the place is flooded we usually do nothing until the water goes down. So if we bring our machines, they get stuck. So we wait for the water to subside, the ground becomes firm then we intervene,” she alluded.
In the meantime, Kagina told MPs that they are working towards developing alternative routes.
She promised to upgrade a number of roads including the Rwenkunye-Apac-Puranga (191 km) from gravel to bitumen standard.
Today, Works and Transport Minister Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala is expected to join Kagina on the second leg of the tour.
The two will jointly inspect the Lira-Kamdini, Teboke-Ayer-kole Town Council roads and the route leading to Kungu Ferry landing site among many others.
The engagement between Lango MPs and UNRA comes hot on the heels of a September 8, 2021 meeting which was held at Kyambogo.
