Govt vehicles stuck in Teso mud for weeks
By Julius Odeke
4th June 2012:
The state of the roads in Teso region was thrust to the fore over a week ago when several government officials who had gone to bury the late Joseph Cuthbert Obwangor got stuck in the muddy roads and were forced to leave their vehicles behind.
According to the Chairman of Katakwi Local Government Mr Robert Ekongot Ekongot, some of the grounded vehicles belong to the military, police and other security agencies.
“Yes the military has been deployed in the area to guard against rogue elements. But it’s not something that is good in the eyes of the public – seeing vehicles that belong to security agencies grounded in the mud,” he laments.
Ekongot also said there is no immediate solution to the problem, and the “securities agencies will have to wait until the soil dries up to enable earth moving equipment to reach the area.”
Ekongot also said many roads in the region were now impassable. “Pupils and students cannot go to their schools because the road network is not functioning. And parents cannot allow them to risk going to their schools, lest they end up drowning,” says Ekongot.
Threat of hunger
Mr Ekongot also warned that famine could strike Teso because of water logging and floods in the region. He thus appealed to the government and her development partners to put in place mechanisms that will avert this eminent natural disaster.
“A population of close to 100,000 people could find themselves in an awful situation because of food shortages,” Ekongot said in an interview with Uganda Correspondent last Thursday.
“People have now developed a culture of waiting for the office of the Prime Minister and the ministry of Relief and Disaster Preparedness to provide relief handouts. This poses a big danger to the community because people no longer till their farms,” Ekongot said.
Ekongot said floods have washed away crops from hundreds of hectares of farmland and even damaged some residential structures, leaving farmers destitute. He said this has been ongoing since 2007 when the region first experienced floods that displaced hundreds of residents.
Located in Eastern Uganda, Katakwi district is at least 450 kilometres away from the capital Kampala. It also borders Karamoja region – a semi-arid area occupied by pastoralists. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
