Residents decry slow work pace on USMID bridge project in Arua city amid fears of rainy season

By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Residents in Arua city are concerned over the slow pace of work at two sites of bridges on river Enyau being constructed under Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Additional Funding (USMID-AF. Following several years of complain about the poor state of the road and bridge, Arua district received funding from the government of the republic of Uganda with support from the world bank under USMID-AF for the 2 bridges worth 5 billion shillings in the financial year 2022/2023, with Enyau one commonly referred to as the BAT bridge costing 2.3 billion while Enyau 2 will cost 2.7 billion shillings. The two projects were expected to be implemented within a project period of 8 months but since the site handover to Niem Establishments limited the contractor undertaking the constructions on 4th October 2022, four months down the road the works on both sites still stands at 20 percent with the second bridge having no signs of any works. This has raised fear among residents that if the rainy season commences, then there will be a total cutoff of the road because the temporary bridge erected to be used as the works go on, cannot withstand the volume of flood waters the river always has during rainy season and may force the construction works to stall.

Hope Akello clementine, a resident of Olumini village appeals to the leaders to fast truck the works on the bridge. “We were excited when the project for this bridge was launched. Now our excitement is almost coming to a standstill, the reason being that the pace the project is taking is slow and we know how terrible Enyau River always is during rain seasons. Our fear that when rain season comes when the bridge is not yet in a better position, we may be unable to pass to go to the market” she says. According to Doreen Alamiru a resident of Nsambya cell, Awindiri ward blames lack of supervision by the city authorities is impacting on the quality of works being done at the first site expressing doubts if the second site will even be worked on. “Enyau River is just behind my residence which gives me a clear vision of whatever takes place at the construction site. To my surprise, since the time of the launching of the project up to this time, I am not pleased, not only me but the community around is astonished because of what is taking place right now.”Alamiru narrated. She adds that when one goes at the site there are only two ladies who keep waving the alert flags and yet there is nothing really being done.
Benard Anguyo a business man who owns a phone shop along the road next to the bridge says the time the project site was handed over, they were assured of the works commencing as soon as possible but he wonders what is really taking place. According to him they were being told the construction materials are being imported from abroad that is why the project is delaying to which he says they have not seen any signs of materials being brought at the site. He says this delay is affecting his business since most of his customers come from across the river

According to Alex Oyer, the lc1 chairperson of Awindiri cell Onzivu ward, who has been paying frequent visits to the site the community is getting impatient over the delays given the bad history of the former bridge. He say this bridge has been in a very poor state for long and people badly need them worked on. "Yes they have right to do that because this project, they have been waiting for it for a long time. This bridge if you are to go to the history, there is a company that wanted to facilitate the construction of this bridge in the past, but they were not allowed because this is supposed to be done by the government. That’s why the community is annoyed. All their mind is they want to see the bridge as soon as possible. So I will to appeal to the community to be patient as we have already spoken to the site engineer and he has promised that they will fight to beat the deadline,” Oyer noted.

Clarifying on the worries of the community, Fred Caku the site engineer for the project attributes the delays to machine breakdown but pledges completion of the works at the two sites. According to him since they could not get the spares locally they had to order for it from Kampala which took time but they are doing everything possible to beat the project deadline. “Indeed the community could probably be concerned. For the last two to three weeks we had a challenge of a breakdown of the machine. The spare part was got and we have resumed work and we promise and pledge our commitment still to complete the work. We are aware that the rain season is coming so we are fighting to ensure that we complete the work within the planned or anticipated duration” said Caku. He says the community is right to raise concerns because they are part of the project adding that much as people are not seeing what they are doing, within their camp other steel works including, reinforcements, cutting an bending are already completed awaiting the conclusion of the excavation works.
The two bridges on Enyau River connects the cells of Ezova, Driwala, Olumini, Awindiri and Okalimbe all in Arua city to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.