Govt lacks resources for road maintenance, says Ecweru

The State minister for Works and Transport, Mr Musa Ecweru, has attributed the poor road network in the country to lack of resources for road maintenance. 

Speaking to journalists during the Uganda-Japan Quality Infrastructure Workshop in Kampala yesterday, Mr Ecweru said: “I want to say with all honesty that it is true that the road network in the country that was painfully developed over the years, has suffered a lot of degradation for two major reasons. 

“The first reason being lack of adequate resources. The moment you commission a road, there must be adequate resources for maintenance.” 
“There was also a lacuna particularly in the two years when we suffered lockdowns. Road maintenance went into limbo and when we recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, resources have not been coming as expected particularly for maintenance, not just in the capital city, but across the country, leading to serious degradation of roads,” he added. 
He said for every road constructed, there must be resources to maintain it. 
The minister said discussions were ongoing to see how the government can mobilise more resources.

READ: Potholes in Kampala and the way Uganda is run 

“I’m happy to report to the country that the capital city, which is the face of the country, is being worked on and more resources are being mobilised to address the potholes that characterise the city at the moment. A lot of work is going on and I am sure in the next few months, the citizens will start to see some change,” he said.
He revealed that detailed road repairs would be undertaken once the El-Nino rains being experienced in the country comes to an end.

On the Uganda-Japan cooperation, Mr Ecweru said a few years back, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding where the Japanese government agreed to support Uganda in terms of knowledge and technical and resource sharing with the government in terms of planning, developing and maintaining quality infrastructure in the country.
The minister cited the second Nile Bridge in Jinja and Foot Bridge/flyover at Clock Tower flyover as some of the projects supported by the Japanese government.

In a speech read for him by Mr Ecweru, Gen Edward Katumba, the Works and Transport minister, commended President Museveni for supporting infrastructure development and maintenance.
“Through his visionary leadership, infrastructure development is allocated 15 to 20 percent of the national budget every Financial Year to support service delivery and economic development,” he said. 
 
Mr Yoshimura Tomotaka, the deputy head of mission of the Embassy of Japan in Uganda, said road maintenance is important and Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would continue to support Uganda’s efforts to develop its infrastructure.

About roads
Mr M.M Odongo, the commissioner for construction standards and quality management in the Ministry of Works and Transport, said access to and efficiency of transport infrastructure is critical to Uganda’s competitiveness and ability to harness its regional and global potential.
He said road transport accounts for more than 90 percent of cargo freight and passenger movement.

He revealed that the road network totals 159,710 km and comprises 21,200km of national roads (13 percent) 38,603 km of district road (24 percent), 19,959km (12 percent) of urban roads and 79,948km (51 percent) of community access roads.

Mr Odongo said the percentage of paved roads which stands at 6,056km (3.8 percent) of national roads, 106.5km (0.28 percent) of district roads and 1,229.7 (6.16 percent) of urban roads is relatively low.
“No community access road is paved, therefore, about 90 percent of the entire road network is not paved,” he said.