Prime
Ghost of Lwera from Xmases past returns to haunt us
Author: Angella Nampewo. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The Lwera road section is just a representation of all the things that are wrong with our public services. You cannot be sure if the road crews are merely incompetent workmen; hapless fellows who are underfunded or clever imps who intentionally do a shoddy job and run off with the balance of the public funds meant to do a proper job.
Just last week, there was a meme doing the rounds on social media, about road engineers relaxing under the shade of a tree, waiting for December 20th to start working on the Lwera section of the Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara Highway. I saw the meme on December 16. No sooner had we started laughing at the joke than the ghosts of Lwera returned to haunt us from last year.
As if by clockwork, on December 17, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) tweeted a public notice on damage at Lwera on Masaka Road.
The trouble was damage to a culvert, which was attributed to rising water levels due to the current heavy rains. However apologetic UNRA sounded or tried to be, the public was unimpressed. The road users had heard these excuses before, at precisely the same time of year—Christmas. Road users and the authorities responsible appear to be in an abusive relationship where road maintenance crews hit the public with a heap of inconveniences and then show up with a cheap bunch of flowers the next day, apologising profusely and promising not to do it again. But the victims know better now. From the responses to that tweet alone, many are willing to bet that the troublesome road section will break down again in the same way at about the same time next year.
The Lwera road section is just a representation of all the things that are wrong with our public services. You cannot be sure if the road crews are merely incompetent workmen; hapless fellows who are underfunded or clever imps who intentionally do a shoddy job and run off with the balance of the public funds meant to do a proper job. It is most certainly not a coincidence that Lwera has been resurrecting to bother road users for several Christmases in a row. What we need to solve is the mystery of why.
Years ago, I had the privilege of working alongside a very smart and diligent specialist who was in charge of quality control during the construction of a power station’s foundations and core structure.
This person understood concrete and upheld construction standards in a most impressive way. The best work was non negotiable. It had to be the real thing and no amount of cajoling could get the markers shifted for anyone. I suspect that one of the reasons that particular power station has held firm and not flooded is because of this engineer’s strong work ethic.
People like that are becoming fewer and harder to find in the sectors that run our key services. Public workers will not hesitate to procure substandard materials or cut corners on the construction standards. Perhaps the budgeting authority does not allocate enough funds in some cases but there is also plenty of evidence of stolen funds.
What you have as a result is flooding power stations, broken bridges and a road system full of potholes. Our infrastructure problems are never-ending. Every so often, work crews show up with some shovels, throw mud on the potholes and vanish again, leaving the problem to fester, until next time. If it is not their fault and they are merely stuck in a bad system, then someone needs to come out and explain to Ugandans why they cannot see value for money reflected in service delivery.
In the absence of that, the road engineers just come off like an unserious lot lousing under a tree during working hours and taking a whole nation for granted, at possibly the worst time of year.
Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant
