Resumption of Obongi ferry brings hope to Madi traders

The resumption of the operations of the Obongi-Sinyanya ferry after three years has brought excitement and relief among the business community and residents in Madi Sub-region.

On February 23, Mr John Ssejemba, the director of Road Infrastructure Protection at the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), informed Obongi District chairperson Khemis Abibu Buga about the resumption of full operations of the Obongi-Sinyanya Ferry.

He stated that Unra kicked off the trial runs for the ferry on February 18 upon completing the civil (construction) works at the ferry crossing (landing site).

“In consideration of the overwhelming passenger numbers and given the fact that the ferry trial runs were successful, we found it reasonable to continue with full ferry operations and not wait for March 1, 2023,” Mr Ssejemba said.

Obongi leaders and residents, who spoke to Daily Monitor last week, said the commencement of the ferry services is a big boost to the economic recovery of Madi Sub-region.

Water transport is the only means of mobility and access to basic services across Obongi and the neighbouring Adjumani and Moyo districts.

“This is a big relief to us, it took us more than three hours to manoeuvre through the 79km drive from Obongi Town to Adjumani Town on a normal day. These costs were huge including crossing the Laropi ferry near Moyo,” Mr Abu Salim, a trader in Obongi Town, said.

The distance also translated into Shs15,000 and Shs40,000 as charges in a passenger vehicle and boda boda respectively, unlike Shs10,000 and Shs15,000 previously charged on the same, before suspension of the ferry operations at Sinyanya Ferry Crossing.

 The distance to get to Adjumani and connect to the Acholi Sub-region and other parts of the country across the Nile River is now reduced by about one hour, Mr Abu added.

Distance covered

Previously, one had to drive 55km from Obongi Town to the Laropi Ferry Crossing spot in Laropi Town Board to cross and continue the 24km drive to Adjumani Town.

The original 35km distance between Adjumani and Obongi towns would be covered in only 35 minutes before the Sinyanya (Obongi) Ferry Crossing was suspended by Unra. Mr Buga, the Obongi District chairperson, said that the landing site is strategically located on a trade route connecting Juba to Arua City via Obongi. “The ferry (Obongi – Sinyanya) site needs to be upgraded to fit the current water level, there have previously been big volumes of trade in produce and general merchandise to South Sudan through Obongi but was disrupted once the site was closed,” Mr Drici said.

Mr Ben Anyama, the Adjumani district chairperson, says the resumption of the Obongi-Sinyanya ferry is a big boost to trade in the Madi sub-region.

“This is going to solve the problems of transport and bring about economic recovery in our area here. The Obongi ferry is not just for the people of Obongi or Adjumani alone, it is for everybody, therefore I am very grateful that this is going to boost trade,” Mr Anyama said.

Looking back

For the first time since 1964, Obongi in 2020 experienced rising water levels when River Nile burst its banks, causing severe flooding around the Obongi-Sinyanya ferry landing site and the neighbouring Obongi Town Council.

In a July 9, 2020, letter to Obongi leaders, Ms Allen Kagina, the Unra executive director, halted the operations of the Obongi - Sinyanya ferry, saying the increasing water level posed a threat to free navigation from Obongi to Sinyanya Landing Site in Adjumani.

After nine months of the ferry inactivity, Obongi leaders wrote to Unra, inviting them to send a team of experts to come and study two alternative sites for relocating the grounded ferry, that’s Angaliacini-Liri or Aliba - Offu.

In the planned relocation, Unra officials came up with two other alternative routes; Indilinga – Ofu and Angaliachini – Liri, with a final assessment indicating that the latter was the best alternative.

Whereas funding was reportedly secured by Unra to start the process of preparing the Angaliacini Landing Site to resume the ferry operations, a section of the business community and leaders from Obongi later petitioned Unra in protest of the plan.

counting the cost

According to Unra, the absence of the Obongi ferry has had a direct impact on the Laropi Ferry operations since it now has to handle the additional traffic that should have been shouldered by the absent ferry at the now dormant Obongi site.

To justify the overwork and overuse of the Laropi ferry, this newspaper established that in 2021 alone, the ferry made 5,094 trips instead of the standard 4,320 trips per year, it also carried 76,560 vehicles and 766,776 passengers over River Nile.

In December 2021 alone, the ferry made 467 trips instead of the normal 360 trips, according to statistics obtained from Unra..

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