Mbarara District stuck with disrepaired equipment, 125m required on grader alone

FEATURED NEWS UPCOUNTRY NEWS
April 20, 2024
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Amos Tayebwa

Mbarara

The status of road networks in Mbarara District is declining due to lack of key road equipment which are in a state of disrepair including the grader that broke down a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, most roads in the district are impassable, something that has resulted in lamentation among the locals and leaders asking Government to come to rescue.

During the recent District roads committee meeting that was held at Mbarara District headquarters Kamukuzi, chaired by Bazir Bataringaya Rwankwene as the Chairperson, it was revealed that key district road equipment are all in the state of disrepair. Among these include Tippers, Water boiser, excavator and even the grader which broke down. It was revealed that the grader alone requires about Shs125m which may be hard for the District to raise this money.

The roads committee meeting was convened to consider the status of roads within Mbarara District and the progress that has been made with the five hundred million (500m) that has been received out of Shs 1b that was given to the districts to see whether as Mbarara District expects to get balance and how to progress before the Financial year ends.

Bazir Bataringaya, the Kashari North Member of Parliament and the Mbarara District Roads committee revealed that the above mentioned challenge faced by the district, the progress of their road maintenance has been very poor.

”As a result, we have considered that once we received the money for the second and third quarter we use that money to repair the equipment and put it into operational mode in order to make sure that we work on all the roads in the sub-counties and also in the district. As of now we are negatively affected by failed equipment, but once we have them repaired, we think the job will be done very well” said MP Bataringaya.

During the meeting that was also attended by the LCV Chairman, Didas Tabaro, the Woman MP Mbarara District Margret Ayebare Rwebyambu, the District Engineers among others raised an issue that since Members of Parliament also lobbied for Shs 1Billion per District they should go ahead and also lobby for money per Sub-county like Shs 100m per sub-county per year for the road maintenance.

“Once we lobby this money and get it, this means 1.1b will be added on 1B we already have within the district, so with 2.1B if this is granted I think we shall succeed in making sure that all our roads are well maintained and I do not expect any opposition to this motion once I lay it on the floor of Parliament because all the MPs are interested in good roads within their constituencies so they must support this motion” he added.

MP Bataringaya is the same member of Parliament who laid the motion to the floor of parliament in 2023 that the government should allocate each district and municipality Shs1 billion for maintenance of roads. And the motion was passed, and so far the two quarters first and second have already been released.

MP Bataringaya has also revealed that the complete overhaul of the grader alone now requires SHS 125m. Hefurher said that as the committee over the grader’s issue they are going to write to the ministry of works and lobby that they help them give Mbarara District this money separate from the other money that is used for roads, so that the grader can be repaired. This grader, Mbarara District has been sharing it with Rwampara District and Mbarara City as one of the reasons why it breaks down over and over again.

Didas Tabaro, the Mbarara District LC5 Boss has also explained that Mbarara District has got only one road unit (Grader), and the same grader has got old. He also revealed that some other road equipment is shared with the neighbouring Districts which has also become a challenge. ”I want to appeal to our people and the locals to also help us and do some temporary maintenance on our small roads during this time when the district is in an emergency. Do not wait for the government when there is a problem” said Tabaro, the District Chairman.