Heavy rains disrupt USMID roadworks

Contractors, who are working on USMID roads and desilting of River Nyamwamba in Kasese have attributed the delays in the completion of construction works to heavy rains.

The works, which started in March last year were expected to be complete  between April and May while the desilting started in June and the contractor was supposed to handover in March.

The district started receiving heavy rains at the beginning of March.
As a result, the supervisors for USMID projects have revealed that of Shs33.4 billion, the total sum of road construction, by the end of April they had utilised Shs14.1 billion.

Mr Gabriel Fataki, an engineer and consultant at Fencon Consultants Engineers Limited, who is supervising Techno 3 Company Limited, said their initial contract expired on April 30 and it was extended to the end of June.

“The initial contract for Techno 3 expired on April 30 while for China Railway 18, it will expire on May 31, 2023 and the delays have been as a result of a number of factors including the insufficiency of production base course aggregates. The aggregates or rocks we use on the roads are being transported from Rwimi in Bunyangabu districts and sometimes the vehicles have breakdowns which result in transportation challenges,” he said.

He said if the construction materials were within the district (Kasese), the progress would be above 80 percent on each on the road.

“We have also experienced heavy rains that have kept sweeping our roads and materials and as a matter of fact, the works cannot continue during the rains,” Mr Fataki said.

The affected roads include Mboghoyabo that was contracted by Techno 3 Uganda Limited, Rwenzori road, Bus Circular road, Third Street, Kitalikibi road, Park rise, Stanley Street, and Margherita that are contracted by China Railway 18th Bureau Group Company Limited.  

Mr Fataki said the progress at Mboghoyabo is 55 percent.

The commissioner of Urban Development at the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Mr Joseph Walter Pade, in January while inspecting USMID works in Fort Portal said all contractors who fail to complete the works in stipulated time will be blacklisted.

“If you fail to deliver work on time, we shall blacklist your company and we shall not want to see you doing any of our work anywhere, you’re just struggling with 2.5 kilometres of road,” he said.

On April 29, a team of officials from the World Bank and Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development made an inspection on the construction works to ascertain the progress of works.
Mr Isaac Mutenyo, the project coordinator for USMID, advised leaders of Kasese and contractors to prioritise water drainage.  “Kasese is best known for floods and if the leaders fail to prioritise drainage channels, we shall find the construction of roads becoming a problem to the surrounding community because floods will submerge people’s houses,” he said.

Mr Chance Kahindo, the Kasese Municipality mayor, appealed to government to develop a master plan for Kasese that will address floods.

“We submitted 15 kilometres of roads to the ministry for consideration and if all are worked upon, Kasese won’t be the same. The only problem that wouldn’t let us achieve our goal is floods which might destroy these constructed roads,” he said.

River Nyamwamba

The downpour also destroyed some gabions on River Nyamwamba whose works were nearing completion.

Last year, the government with funding of Shs17 billion from World Bank contracted Ambitious Construction Company to desilt 5.4 kilometres of River Nyamwamba in areas with critical infrastructure.

Dr Brian Guma, the team leader of Albert water management zone from Ministry of Water and Environment, said the desilting works are currently on halt due to heavy rains.

“The assessment that we have done with the team from World Bank on the river is that about 10 percent of the works were destroyed by floods in some sections, floods surpassed gabions which caused some to collapse and works cannot continue now until water levels have reduced,” he said.

Dr Guma said the contractor had insured desilting works and insurance would compensate the contractor to work on sections of the gabions that were destroyed.