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Local leadership share impact as they push for more support
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | It is 02:00pm on Thursday April 08, 2021, a pupil at the government aided, Amaji Primary School, Oyamu district is resting on the floor where her bed is laid.
The dormitory is congested, poorly ventilated and could expose the pupil to bad weather, diseases and related external attacks.
Several other mattresses, for other pupils attending class are laid on the floor. There is no single bed in this dormitory.
Fortunately, this scenario will soon come to an end, as Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited through the contractor for the 600MW Karuma Hydropower Dam – Sinohydro Corporation Limited – moves to hand over newly constructed infrastructure facilities to the school management.
The company has already constructed boys’ and girls’ dormitories, classroom block, administration blocks, head teacher’s house, and teacher’s house.
The facilities, whose construction begun in 2019, for instance, are expected to accommodate at minimum 2,000 pupils upon completion.
This is far beyond the school’s current pupil enrolment of about 1,200 since it started in 1982.
“UEGCL is making the school to become a model in Oyamu District,” says Esther Awidi, the school’s head teacher. “We are happy and looking forward to seeing the standards of the school uplifted.”
Sinohydro is also constructing a general hospital at Dii Cwuinyi village that will consist of an outpatient department with a general clinic, administration, teenage, radiology, orthopaedic and laboratory sections and two units of nurses’ house.
Overall progress of the project is at 34%, according to the UEGCL Head of Communication and Corporate Affairs, Enock Kusasira.
It is also constructing Masindi Military Hospital which is complete and is to be officially commissioned soon.
Kusasira said, the total budget for the hospital and Amaji primary school is US$3million (approx.Shs11bn at current exchange rate).
The same budget includes costs related to equipping the structures with computers, sitting facilities, electricity, water and more.
In an interview with The Independent, on April 08, the Chairperson LCV for Oyamu district, Adea Nelson Akar, said the two projects are expected to improve service delivery given that the district has limited resources to satisfy the needs of the population.
“We are very happy about these projects,” he says. He urges the people to own the projects and not to vandalise them. He says, the district would avail some of its meagre resources to equip the facilities with scholastic materials and related equipment.
Isimba dam projects
The projects linked to this dam are in the two districts of Kamuli and Kayunga, which are the host for the 183MW hydropower dam.
For Kayunga health projects, UEGCL under its Community Development Action Plan projects, has constructed facilities including, Busaana Health Centre III, Bukamba Health Centre III and Namusala Health Centre II.
In terms of education, the generation company has constructed facilities for Nakakandwa Primary School, Nakatooke Primary School and Busaana Secondary School.
In terms of sanitation, it has constructed several VIP latrines and boreholes in the district.
For Kamuli district, the company has accomplished construction of Nankandulo Health Centre IV, Mbulamuti Health Centre IV, Buluya Health Centre II, Kiyunga Health Centre II. All these health centres have campaigning sanitation facilities.
For schools, UEGCL has constructed Nankandulo Primary School, Lwanyama Technical Institute, St. Andrew’s Primary School and several other sanitation facilities.
