Over two decades ago Anaka town council in Nwoya district was home to about 6,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) due to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda.

 Like many areas in northern Uganda, Anaka is on the development path. The former densely populated area with huts scattered all over at the height of in 2000s, now has one of the best roads made of asphalt concrete covering a stretch of 7kms.

 “Our area is one of the smallest town councils in Uganda to have the longest kilometres of a tarmac road in Uganda,” Patrick Omara the Town Clerk told councillors during the budget approval meeting that was held on Thursday. 

The town council which was created in 2010 gets about shs100m from the central government for works and technical services and with a local revenue projection of shs100m as of 2020/2021 financial year. 

Omara said it would have been impossible for the council to have the 10 roads worked on. 

Alex Ojera road (0.94km), Concy Aciro road (0.86km), Geto Too road (0.87km), Mission road (0.66km), Market road (0.24km) and Rwot Lugaza (0.50km) are the roads that have been worked on. 

Others are Te Cwa to Anaka sub-county (1.02kms), Erinayo Oryema Crescent (0.33km), Wang Martin road (0.64km) and Access road connecting to Concy Aciro (0.16km). 

The road work costing over shs10b and standing at over 90% is being done by Zhongmei Engineering Group Ltd that undertook tarmacking of Olwiyo to Gulu City road in September 2014. 

The town clerk said the work is part of corporate social responsibility accorded by Zhongmei under the supervision of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA). 

“This is a big project but surprisingly, the residents along the roads are already blocking the drainage channel using their garbage. The next council must come out with measures on how to sustain these roads,” Omara noted. 

Roads excite residents 

Irene Acen 31 years and a resident of Ceke ward said it is hard to believe how the area has transformed in comparison to the last years. 

“This place was full of huts and very populated. As residents, we are happy that there’s development which is now visible,” she noted. 

Acen said before the construction of the roads, there were a lot of rape cases as rapists would easily hide in the bush along the roads coupled with theft. 

She notes that such problems were most reported during market auction days with women becoming the most targeted. 

Francis Ojok a resident of Labyei ward said the existence of such developments makes locals begin forgetting about what they went through during the war. 

Ojok added that people who have plots in the town council were reluctant to develop them due to poor road network connectivity which has been improved. 

Denis Adua, the chairperson of the business community in Anaka told New Vision that, some people who had built were losing their housings after discovering that they have built within the road reserves. 

“Business is mainly concentrated along the main road because the owners fear that customers would not go to the back streets due to poor roads,” he noted.