The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Works and Transport Minister Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, is pushing for stringent bylaws against poor garbage disposal in urban councils to safeguard road infrastructure from destruction.
Katumba is concerned that several roads are spoilt shortly after their construction, largely due to unbecoming social behaviour in the host communities. He says such bylaws should prevent poor disposal of garbage that ends up clogging drainage channels and walkways.
According to the public expenditure governance in the roads sector report by Advocates Coalition for Democracy and Environment-ACODE, Uganda spends about 12 per cent of the roads sector budget on maintenance activities. For instance, the study established that an average of 450 billion Shillings was spent on road maintenance between 2015 and 2019.
Katumba challenged local government leaders to consider intervention that will reduce the burden by enacting punitive bylaws against all habits that cause defects that affect the roads hence the failure to last their lifespan. He was commissioning the the 41-kilometre Nyendo-Bukataka road in Masaka on Monday,
The Nyendo-Bukakata route is the major transport route that connects Masaka district to Kalangala islands through Bukakata landing site at the ferries docking pier. It was upgraded from gravel to paved standard at a cost of 165.32 billion Shillings, a loan government obtained from the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa-BADEA and the OPEC Fund for International Development-OFID.
Engineer Joseph Otim, the Director in Charge of Roads Maintenance at the Uganda National Roads Authority-UNRA, has on the other hand challenged the local leaders in the area to ensure that the road furniture that includes among others; signposts and manhole covers are not vandalized.
Masaka City Mayor Florence Namayanja says that the Nyendo-Bukakata route has been one of the long-awaited projects in the area and its completion is going to simplify business and transport between Kalangala and Masaka, and the landing sites that directly feed into the city.
She however appealed to the Minister to support Masaka City with additional financial allocations into the Road Fund Budget to enable them to attend to the needs of the new areas that were annexed to the city.
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