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Through the Ministry of Agriculture, the government of Uganda has been rolling out the valley dams construction project for semi-arid Karamoja sub region. And each district of Karamoja is supposed to have a water dam which the president directed to be constructed by the ministry of agriculture and not ministry of water.
The agriculture ministry engineers have been trying their best to implement this directive by the President even when there are obvious risks emanating from the insecurity of Karamoja sub region, which has remained a big obstacle to many other government interventions.
The UPDF has been trying to mitigate this problem but much of the army protection is concentrated on the dam construction sites and this leaves engineers exposed to risk of being killed by armed Karamojongs while in transit as they travel to and from the construction sites.
Such insecurity has actually contributed to the delaying of some of the dams’ projects completion because the situation remains unpredictable most of the time though some few objective Karamoja elected leaders appreciate the risk the agricultural ministry engineers are taking.
On his part, the president from the very beginning preferred the ministry of agriculture and not that one of water and environment to do the work because it’s cheaper and technically more suited to deliver such projects because it’s part of their mandate.
The ministry of agriculture uses the approach of force account whereby its own engineers do the work as opposed to the ministry of water which outsources the work to private contractors. The ministry of agriculture is spending something like Shs4bn per dam which is cheaper than the ministry of water which would spend four times more to deliver one water dam per district.
When the force accounting approach is used, the ministry of agriculture engineers do all the work and save money on consultants, supervision and designing. That is how the cost goes down, which the president is very happy about.
Although there are some few actors who want to personally be approached and given well facilitated assignments to get involved in embracing the projects, most of the elected leaders in Karamoja appreciate the patriotism shown and the risk the ministry of agriculture engineers have continued to take to ensure the dams are delivered at the most affordable rate.
MPS THANK MUSEVENI:
During the special sitting of Parliament in Gulu, the MPs from Karamoja thanked the president for the valley dams project being implemented by MAAIF. Led by Amudat Woman MP Betty Louke Chelain, the legislators thanked the big man for prioritizing their region.
Chelain thanked the president by saying; “In Amudat it is well. We no longer lack valley dams. We actually have a lot of them and we thank you for that. The only request we have is of desilting. We request you to direct the finance ministry to provide money for regular desilting so that our valley dams function well.”
Another MP from Karamoja also thanked the president for his directive on the valley dams’ projects but called on fellow MPs to work with MAAIF engineers to improve on the quality of work delivered so that shoddy work becomes a thing of the past.
The leaders from Karamoja promised to support this and all the other government projects meant to improve life in Karamoja. The president promised to get in touch with the elected leaders of Karamoja like Chelain to make sure the valley dams project is strengthened to deliver even better outcomes for the community members.
“All the ordinary people want is water to support agricultural production, irrigation and livestock farming. To ordinary people it doesn’t matter whether the dam is in Moroto or Amudat. It’s all about accessing water to facilitate the intended activities,” said one of the MPs in an interaction with journalists in Gulu after the president’s session.
Since the year 2008, president Museveni has been calling for a comprehensive agriculture mechanization programme fully coordinated and controlled by the ministry of agriculture which he believes has the technical expertise to be able to work well with agronomists, veterinary officers, fisheries and livestock farmers in districts of the targeted regions.
The president forced the ministry of water out in favor of the ministry of agriculture because he doesn’t want duplication of government, which has led to the good outcomes which MPs like Chelain thanked him for during the Gulu session.
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