Pakwach Bridge Floods: Why It Is A Tragedy In Waiting

PAKWACH. Tragedy nearly befell the people of West Nile on Monday, August 12, 2024 when a truck almost submerged in the Albert Nile.

At least close to ten people were seen in a video clip circulating on social media, jumping off the truck trapped by a rail in the process of being washed into the Nile by floods.

The visibly able-bodied men would have been no more if the truck plunged into the river on that rainy day, just 500 meters after Pakwach bridge in Nwoya district.

Officials said every time it rains heavily, R. Tangi pours water across the road into the Albert Nile, and hence bringing traffic to a standstill on either side of the road.

Reports indicate that for the last four years, the bridge constructed on Paraa – Masindi Road has blocked the normal flow of R. Tangi which used to pour water into the Albert Nile, resulting in over flooding across the road.

The floods have now eaten up the tarmac and created huge gullies on both sides of the affected road. This, according to experts, may further weaken the already cracked Pakwach bridge which was constructed in the early 1960s.

Why is the flooding a tragedy in waiting?

John Muteesi, a truck driver, said people are likely to die on the affected section of the road if the government doesn’t work on it.

“We are always inconvenienced here when it rains. The road floods, forcing us to wait at times for two days to cross. We usually lose a lot of time and money waiting here. For those who risk crossing, it is so dangerous! One day, we may hear that so many people have died after being washed into the Nile by floods if the situation continues like this,” Muteesi said.

To Charles Achai, a Boda Boda rider and a resident of Atorotogot village in Got Afoyo sub-county, Nwoya district, the flooding usually causes him serious monetary loss.

Achai, who operates between Nwoya and Pakwach said he loses at least Shs100,000 each day it floods on the section of the road.

“I charge shs15,000 from Nwoya to Pakwach and in a day, I on average make 10 trips meaning I get shs150,000 every day. But when this place floods, I end up making only three to five trips a day and at times I don’t make any trip at all if the floods fail to subside,” Achai explained.

Mercy Grace Munduru, a resident of Arua city said: “What we see happening in Pakwach has happened repeatedly, with no sustainable solution from Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and all relevant actors. This is a disaster waiting to happen, yet preventable. Who pays for the cost of being unable to access the rest of Uganda?”

She said this level of inconvenience is unnecessary, adding that it is putting the lives of nearby communities in jeopardy because of the inaction which is uncouth.

“We demand that the rehabilitation of the affected section of the road and Pakwach Bridge is given the level of urgency it requires,” Munduru appealed.

Robert Omito Steen, the Pakwach district chairperson, stressed that this is so far the fourth year that they are suffering from the calamity of floods in the area.

He noted that each time the flood comes, it paralyses business for almost a week or two because even up to the end of the week, the people in Kampala and far ends like Koboko, South Sudan and DR Congo are still believing that the road is impassable.

“As so, for us as West Nile, we incur a lot of losses. Even many of our items such as foods which are very perishable get spoiled when the flood persists. For us, we are becoming very emotional because there must be some people in the government who are trying to play around with us. When you look at the money that goes unaccounted for in the government and you ask yourself how much can the repair of this section of the road cost, you wonder why the government is taking long to fix this problem,” Omito who doubles as the vice chairperson for West Nile Local Government Association said.

“We are tired! That is why whenever this flood of late occurs, most times I now don’t rush to communicate because I feel there must be some people who have programmed to downplay us just to cut our business so that we don’t survive, so that we don’t grow. So, I’m now pleading; the government should not make us very emotional otherwise, this is the gate to West Nile, when we become too emotional, we may not have strength and power but we may now mobilize our religious leaders and we pray,” Omito emphasized.

He further threatened that they are giving the government up to December this year to work on the section of the road, lest they are going to invite ancestors to take charge of the situation if prayers fail.

“Otherwise, we are very unhappy because when the continuity of business is not assured and people now look at our region West Nile like some jokers, people who are not really being bothered about. Long time, we have been forced to think that maybe some people still think some of our benefits still remain in DR Congo because we just celebrated 100 years in around 2014 of belonging to Uganda.”

“So, if it is an indirect way of communicating that we must forget, we belong to the other side, the communication should be put clear so that we begin to acquire visa to cross Pakwach bridge to go to Uganda. If that is not the case, the government should take immediate action, we are no longer ready to listen to any kind of story about this section of the road,” Omito remarked.

Twaibu Achile, the Pakwach Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC), said much as the affected section of the road is on Nwoya side, they (Pakwach leaders) usually get concerned first because the impact of the flooding mostly affects West Nile and Pakwach in particular.

He, however, said the question of what the government is doing shouldn’t arise because the design of Pakwach bridge is already complete while the flooding section is part of the ongoing road works from Olwiyo to Pakwach bridge.

UNRA officials speak out

When contacted, Eng. Lawrence Pariyo, the Head of Bridges and Structures at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) said: “For this section being flooded, the contractor reconstructing Olwiyo-Pakwach road will raise the roar at this location and construct a number of box culverts to accommodate the flush floods passing at this location. New Pakwach bridge will also be constructed.”

Eng. Justin Lukala, the resident Engineer of Olwiyo – Pakwach project, confirmed the development, saying from the technical point of view, the team have already taken designs.

“We have a series of box culverts in this section, we have nine lines of box culverts and the design considers raising the whole of this section; a section of 1.5km. We are going to raise it more than 2.5 meters high and we believe that will arrest the situation,” Lukala said.

He observed that because of this emergency situation, the site team has opened a number of locations to reduce the retention time of the flood and also the impact on the existing road.

“The employer (UNRA) has moved ahead to first track the process of procuring the addendum for this section of the work. This work is supervised by UNRA and the contractor is already moving ahead to establish a camp near here so as to prioritize this section of the road for permanent work to start once the employer provides an addendum for this section,” Lukala promised.