YUMBE LEADERS, LOCALS DECRY DELAY IN EXTENSION OF POWER TO RURAL AREAS

By Robert Elema

Yumbe
 
The leaders and residents in Yumbe district have decried the delay in extension of power to some of the rural villages and institutions in the district.
 
Recently, Uganda borrowed a loan from the World Bank to extend power to the rural areas but power lines have so far reached few rural areas leaving other areas in darkness in the West Nile sub region.
 
Speaking to Radio Pacis at the weekend, Mr Bernard Aliga a staff at Dramba health centre III said the issue of power is a major problem at the facility. He said, the facility has not been connected to the national grid but only relies on the solar power that has been installed which is sometimes unreliable. "We can't rely much on the solar power because it disappoints us at any time. The situation is worse during the rainy season which makes the solar batteries not to charge well and this may result into power going off for about six hours in the facility," he said.
 
He added; "In wards like the maternity ward, power needs to be constant throughout the night but if power goes off, the staff on duty resort to using phone lights, torches in the labor room to deliver mothers which is not good".
 
Ms Sharon Sarah a student of Nipata secondary school said the introduction of the new lower secondary school curriculum has made teaching and learning to be digitalized. "To embrace the new lower secondary school curriculum, we use smart phones, tablets and computers for teaching, learning and also for doing research but charging the gadgets is always a problem. Our school is not connected to the main power grid but we instead use solar power which sometimes disturbs if the weather is not good," she said.
 
Mr. Michael Nabugere the settlement commandant in the office of the Prime minister said power is one of the key drivers of development which can change the lives of people and also create jobs for the community. "With the effort of extending power to Bidibidi refugee settlement, I am very sure, it's going to have a long term life impact on the refugees and the host community members. Across the settlement, there are small trading centers and these trading centers if connected with power, business will boom in these trading centers," he noted.
 
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) data of 2017, the power line coverage in Yumbe district stands at 5 per cent meanwhile only 5.5 per cent of the households have access to electricity.
 
Mr. Abdulmutwalib Asiku, the Yumbe district chairperson said, the status of electricity in Yumbe district indicates that, most of the health and educational institutions, households including business facilities have not been connected. "We have a total of 28 secondary schools, 158 primary schools, 26 lower local government headquarters, 45 health facilities and 3 tertiary institutions so, if you look at the statistics of power lines extended to these institutions, not more than 40 per cent of them have been connected to the main grid including a number of households and business premises," he said.
 
He added; "We are looking at how to access power so that we make teaching and learning effective and also how to ensure that services in health facilities are easily accessible by the community including provision of services within the health facilities is easier for our health workers". He said, the recent approval of the loan by parliament for the second phase of the rural electrification Programme should be implemented so that the challenges of power in the rural are addressed.
 
Ms Melsa Naima Avako the Woman MP for Yumbe district said, the ministry of energy should expedite the process of connecting the west Nile region to the main grid. "I have seen the pylons for extending the power from Karuma approaching the West Nile region. We need this connections done urgently because we have some factories in the region like the Yumbe mango factory and other upcoming ones that would offer job opportunities for our jobless youths in the area," she said.
 
She added that, Yumbe district has offered a chunk of land for the establishment of industrial parks but such big institutions once constructed can't run without power.
 
While commissioning some of the connected power lines in Yumbe district last week, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa the minister for energy and mineral development acknowledged that some of the areas haven't yet been connected with power. She assured the people of the West Nile region and Yumbe in particular, that before 2026, power will reach all the areas in the region.
 
Ms. Nankabirwa stated that there is electricity access scale up project funded by the World Bank to a tune of US$638million and some of the money shall be used to extend power to the refugee camps adding that some of it like US$72million will be given to the Uganda Energy Credit Capitalization Company (UECC) that will target groups to access solar panels for their businesses. "The implementation of the World Bank funded Energy Rural Transformation (ERT 3) project was halted because we had not completed compensating people. World Bank can't allow you to move on with the project, at least you are required to compensate 10 per cent minimum," she said. "We have the few people who are remaining but the chief government valuer is working on the valuation and once the report is out, we are going to rush down and compensate these people so that we can complete because there are poles erected which are not wired so, you can't continue wiring when the World Bank halted the exercise," she added.
 
The minister added that, restoration of the environment is another issue that made the World Bank to halt the exercise. "World Bank wants to see the contractor restores the precious trees that were cut down like the endangered shear nut butter trees so, without that, we wouldn't complete the programme that we started that's why you see poles are erected and nothing is taking place which is a concern among the people in the region," she said.
 
She said, you can't talk about tourism, education, health, science and technology and other developments when they don't have energy/electricity and she made assurance that, the implementation of the electricity access scale up will begin towards the end of the month of July.

COVER PHOTO: The minister of energy Ms Ruth Nankabirwa switches on power at Arafa sub county headquarters as the Yumbe leaders look on. By Robert Elema