A number of public Infrastructure projects were stalled due to numerous challenges key among them being land related issues. Land owners made it difficult to reach a consensus with the government so that they are compensated, move away and let the project continue. Simon D’Ujanga the State Minister for Energy said the Parliament should first track the amendment of Article 26 of the Constitution. These will grant the government powers to access the required land for public infrastructure projects that had been dragged by compensation claims. “Four years, we have not completed Kampala – Entebbe. Four years and the bank has started charging us 250,000 Euros every six month. Why, way leaves, so there is a Constitutional Amendment before you in the Parliament, if you don’t do anything about it, development in this country is going to be difficult, if not impossible.” Said, Eng. Simon D’Ujanga – State Minister for Energy.
Eng. D’Ujanga was speaking to the Natural Resource Committee of the Parliament where he encouraged them to pick interest in how countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania had developed. He said much as Uganda was investing trillions of shillings in power generation, it might be difficult to transmit electricity from the dams. “And every time you hear something but in Rwanda; they are doing this, in Kenya; they are doing this. But you go to Rwanda and see their land law says, go to Kenya, go to Tanzania, go to Ethiopia, the people are so quick to say why is the dam costing so little in Ethiopia? It is because of their land policy, it is a nightmare for us in the Ministry of Energy to try and construct transmission lines in this country.” Said the State Minister of Energy.
The legislators were at Karuma Hydro Power Dam to check on the progress of the ongoing construction as part of their oversight function. This queried the contractors on the safety of the workers and Ugandan Engineer ratio compared to that of the Chinese Nationals. “And the average cost of employing a casual laborer now the minimum is 8,000 shillings and you give them lunch on top of that. But my understanding here is that you pay as low as 6,000.” “Why the difference in payrolls, for the same qualifications, the same job....” The 600MW Karuma Hydro Power Dam will use numerous turbines being installed in a 25-km underground tunnel which will be longer than the Kampala Northern Bypass in length. The Dam being constructed by Syno hydro was currently at 60% completion. .
