Kole locals appeal to World Bank over construction of eight collapsed bridges

Residents of Alito sub-county, Kole District in Northern Uganda, have asked the World Bank to provide financial support to improve road connections in the area through reconstruction, maintaining and improving rural bridges.

They hope the World Bank’s intervention would ease the movement of goods and people, and improve access to social services and job opportunities in the district.

For over eight years now, residents of the Alito sub-county have been struggling to access social services following the collapse of eight of the rural bridges.

The affected bridges include; Agwar, Agangoluto, Barakere, Olipa, Owinyodap, Orwa, Olukturu, and Adonyo-Ajili, whose reconstruction requires about Shs9 billion, according to the Kole District engineering department.

Ms Janet Adongo, the acting sub-county chief of Alito, said the collapse of the rural bridges has affected access to social services.

The problem has impacted the livelihoods of individuals who commute across the bridges for work, leading to job losses and financial hardships.

“So, we request that through the World Bank, the government should help us to rehabilitate our collapsed bridges and also work on our poor road network,” she said.

“We have tried as the sub-county to make some allocation but according to the assessment by the district engineer, the reconstruction of these bridges needs a lot of money which is beyond our capacity,” she added.

Ms Adongo made the remarks while welcoming a team from the World Bank and Ministry of Water and Environment at Tekulo Village, Apiioguro Parish in Alito Sub-county on Tuesday, who were monitoring the implementation of the Integrated Water Management and Development Project (IWMDP) at Aswa II Catchment area.

The government through the Ministry of Water and Environment under the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM) is currently implementing this project in sub-catchments of Lwakhakha (Mpologoma catchment), Lake Okolitorom and Apeduru Apapai (Awoja catchment), Kochi (Albert Nile catchment) and Aswa II (Aswa catchment).

The project supports the implementation of catchment management measures, including soil and water conservation, ecosystem protection and restoration; livelihood improvement for the affected communities and supporting stakeholder engagement and the establishment of micro-catchment structures for sustainable management of the interventions.

Mr Richard Musota, assistant commissioner for Water Resources Planning and Regulation, expressed gratitude to the community members, and leadership of Alito Sub-County and Kole District for the great work done regarding the project.

“The issues we have are so many but if we use the little resources the way you have used them, then step by step we should be able to address most of these things,” Mr Musota said, adding that the locals have demonstrated that they have the will to solve issues that affect them.

Mr Barnabas Mubangizi, an official from the World Bank, said the beneficiaries’ testimonies show the project is generating a huge impact. 

“I’m going back; you’ve loaded me with a lot [of issues] that I have to share the story [with other colleagues]. I hope and pray that I will be able to use my pen to share this story which I’ve seen down here, more especially to do with community participation. You never know, maybe it might yield other things,” he said.

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