Poor roads, lack of electricity dominate Jinja communities' needs
Sharif Muwanga, the chairperson for Kizinga-Buwolero village, said their biggest challenge was the poor state of their road coupled with flooding due to the swampy spots that needed fixing with culverts.
A flooded section of the Kizinga-Buwolero road located between Ngereka Forest Reserve, which remains impassable during rainy seasons.(Credit: Jackie Nambogga)
JINJA - The Jinja district local government has embarked on mobilising community members to identify pressing needs ahead of the 2027/2028 budget considerations.
The exercise, dubbed Parish Development Committee (PDC) meetings, becomes the maiden strategy by the district leaders to involve Local Council 1s (LC1s) and LC 2s and community members to resolve on key priorities in areas of infrastructure development, health services, education, water and sanitation, including agriculture.
The exercise was flagged off by the Jinja district Senior Planner, Veronica Nakyeyune, at Buweera Primary School in Buweera parish, Kagoma town council on Tuesday (October 27).
Sharif Muwanga, the chairperson for Kizinga-Buwolero village, said their biggest challenge was the poor state of their road coupled with flooding due to the swampy spots that needed fixing with culverts.
"Whenever it rains, the area remains cut off with pupils failing to go to school," Muwanga said.
Muwanga said they occasionally reported the concern to the town council authorities for intervention, only to be told that there were no funds to work on the road, which borders Kamuli district. (Credit: Jackie Nambogga)
He revealed that learners trek 5km to the nearby Buweera and Nkondo primary schools, while expectant mothers also trek a similar distance to reach the nearby Buwolero health centre II.
The road, which stretches from Buwolero along the Jinja-Kamuli highway, passes mainly through Ngereka Forest Reserve, where trucks that ferry pine trees pass, thereby also damaging the road further.
According to Lasuri Mwidu, the Buweera parish chief, the road was gazetted, but the council only cleared it without putting murram.
Ibrahim Malinzi, a senior two student at Buweera Modern Secondary School, revealed how they always go to school in gumboots during rainy seasons.
“We have remained a laughing stock at school as our colleagues mistake us for people going to gardens. We only wear shoes during the dry season,” he said.
Mesach Ngobi said their daughter studies at Itukulu Primary School in Kamuli district because it was much nearer than schools in Jinja.
However, the father of two commended the technocrats for the bottom-up approach, which enabled them to understand their living standards.
Since all the schools were located on the highway, Ngobi urged district authorities to apportion some land from the 1,207 hectares of the forest reserve and construct a school nearby for them.
Also, residents raised concerns over the lack of electricity, yet Jinja was hosting two dams: Nalubaale and Bujagali dams.