Africa-Press – Uganda. Residents and local leaders in Butebo District, Bukedi Sub-region, have blamed rampant household poverty in the area on the poor state of roads.
Locals say due to poor accessibility, they face challenges of transporting their agricultural produce to the market.
Mr Robert Kiwere, one of the residents, said on Wednesday that for years, they have raised alarm over the poor state of both district and community access roads but have not received any assistance from government.
“We are a landlocked district due to the poor state of roads. It’s costly to access markets in neighbouring districts such as Pallisa, Bukedea, Budaka, Mbale and Kumi,” he said.
Mr Kiwere said whenever it rains, the existing murram roads are impassable and road inter-connectivity is cut off completely and that during a dry season, they become bumpy and dusty.
“The government should consider atleast to tarmac the major Pallisa-Butebo-Nakaloke road and save us,” he said. Pallisa-Butebo-Nakaloke, which connects to other districts such as Mbale, Bukedea and Pallisa, is currently in a poor state.
Butebo district is one of districts in the eastern region with no tarmac road.
“We give support to this government but the state of the roads in the district have continuously hiked the cost of transport and affected economic development or growth,” Ms Richard Oware, a resident of Butebo Sub-county, said.
Mr Oware further explained that most of the passenger vehicles have abandoned Pallisa-Butebo-Nakaloke road and now use newly tarmacked Pallisa-Kamonkoli and Tirinyi-Pallisa-Kumi roads.
“The few vehicles, which have remained, have taken the advantage of the bad roads to over -charge passengers and the business community,” he said.
Mr James Okurut, the district chairperson, said all access roads are in a sorry state due to inadequate funding under the road fund despite having the road equipment.
“We [leaders] have voiced this concern at different foras but unfortunately the government hasn’t responded to people’s quest. We pray that government-or concerned ministries take up this issue with the seriousness it deserves,” Mr Okurut said.
The district engineer, Mr Sam Kooli, said the district has tried to make most of its 240km road network motorable despite the meagre resources.
“The district gets Shs200 million under the road fund, which is not enough due to the fact that most roads have been damaged,” he said.
He said that in the financial year, the district will get Shs1b under the road fund, which, he said, will possibly help to address concerns of poor roads.
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
