Bad roads hurting business in Bududa

Aug 25, 2017

“We have to visit the garage every day; this is because we have to go to Mbale town for all services."

(Credit: Andrew Masinde)

INFRASTRUCTURE | BUDUDA


Residents of Bududa district have called on the government to work on the 28km Manafwa-Bududa road because in its current bad state, it is affecting business in the district.

The road has many potholes which turn into pools whenever it rains. Also under wet weather, the road becomes muddy and slippery, making passage extremely difficult. Vehicles getting stuck in the middle of the road after rain is a common sight.

Samson Natsambwa is the principal assistant secretary at the east-Ugandan district. He says the Manafwa-Bududa circular road is under the Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) and therefore as a district, they don't have any plans for it.

He says the road has been abandoned for years yet as a district they have no capacity to maintain it.

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"Our budget alone is not even enough to run district programs so we have no intentions of working on the road that is meant to be worked on by UNRA. It is just 28km but one has to use between 45 minutes and one hour, which is unbelievable," says Natsambwa.

He is concerned that government is upgrading the Bumbobi-Bubulo-Lwakhakha road but is ignoring a small stretch that is supposed to bring produce to Manafwa before they are taken to Lwakhakha.

"Most of the produce taken to Lwakhakha come from Bududa, so to ease the movement, I feel even the Bududa road should have been tarmacked too. The president has promised twice in his campaigns that he was to work on the road but in vain."

The district LC5 chairperson, Wilson Watira, says delivery of services in the district is constrained by the state of the road. The cost of transport is very high, as is that of maintaining government vehicles.

"We have to visit the garage every day; this is because we have to go to Mbale town for all services.  We don't have facilities such as banks and fueling stations in Bududa so we have to drive to Mbale town, and with the bad road, we have incur a lot of cost of maintaining vehicles."

The district leader says that marketing of produce in marketing centres is a problem. "There is a lot of milk, bananas, vegetables and many other crops that are perishable yet transporting them to marketing centres is difficult."

 

Residents say the roads are in a deplorable state and have become virtually impassable after heavy rains. They say the situation is affecting businesses and transport in the area.

Wanakina Edward, a farmer, says he faces a lot of challenges when it comes to transporting his produce to the markets. "I have to pay a lot of money for transport because of the bad road, sometimes the trucks break down on the road, rendering our perishable food stuffs at risk of getting spoilt."

Another farmer, George Wanambwa, says the road has made prices of food to drop and blames the poor roads.

"They cheat us, claiming the cost of maintaining vehicles and the fuel consumption is high due to the bad road," he says.

Sylvia Nabutsale, a businesswoman, stresses that the bad road has made it very difficult for her to take her produce to Mbale town which is just 38km away.

Drivers say they visit garages very often. They also complain of the soaring fuel prices because of the roads.

While reading the budget 2017/18 national budget in June, finance minister Matia Kasaija, said that feasibility studies and designs would be carried out on the road but to-date, there is no sign of that.

Mark Ssali, the communications director at UNRA, says works on the road were underway but the graders got mechanical issues when the construction was just 3.5km. However work is to resume on August 29.

"The construction is done by UNRA Mbale branch on a force account. Residents should be patient and also cooperate as works go on," said Ssali.

 

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