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| THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd (UEGCL) has commissioned the newly constructed school facilities at Purongo Primary School and Diima Primary school in Nwoya and Kiryandongo Districts respectively.
Nwoya and Kiryandongo are among the three districts besides Oyam hosting 600MW Karuma Hydropower Dam on River Nile.
The facilities implemented under the Karuma Hydropower Project Community Development Action Plan included two classroom blocks with the head teachers’ offices, four staff houses and four stance VIP latrines both at Purongo and Diima Primary schools.
Local contractors, Beru Construction Company carried out construction activities at Purongo Primary School while Birime carried out the construction at Diima Primary School as one of the initiatives in line with the Buy Uganda Build Uganda Policy.
Commissioning the facilities, Ruth Nankabirwa, the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development said, the government is proud of UEGCL’s initiatives in ensuring that the communities reap from the government facilities set up near them.
She advised local communities, teachers and the pupils to take care of the facilities to ensure that they last for a long period of time.
“For renovations of the remaining school facilities and fencing the schools, let the district leaders here do the computations of the costs required and we approach the relevant government ministries as well as well-wishers and the nearby investors to contribute towards it,” she said.
She also advised the local councils to also allocate resources towards improving these two schools to make them model public primary schools in their locality and boost the educational access and standards.
UEGCL Chief Executive Officer, Harrison Mutikanga, said the company is proud that it is slowly and surely improving the social-livelihood of the dam’s host communities.
He said, the company will look into how to provide desks and other facilities to boost on the two schools infrastructure before the end of the year. Mutikanga revealed that the company has also partnered with Gayaza Girls School to provide full sponsorship to at least four girls in the two schools who will score first grades in the upcoming Primary Leaving Examinations for their secondary education.
Purongo Primary school head teacher Bonface Odongo and his Diima Primary School counterpart, Joyce Atimango said they are glad to receive the newly constructed facilities and vowed to keep them in a good state.
The duo also promised to ensure that the schools enrolment and performance goes up owing to the improved infrastructure development including teachers’ accommodation.
Purongo Primary School and Diima Primary School have 719 and 888 pupils, respectively.
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