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Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu city authorities are set to start repairing non-functional solar street lights this month, the City Mayor Alfred Okwonga has revealed.
Close to 300 solar street lights installed within the city under the World Bank-funded Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructural Development program-USMID have been non-functional for nearly two years.
Most of the components of the solar street lights broke down months after their installation due to technical glitches while others were stolen by unknown thugs and some were brought down during heavy storms.
On Wednesday, Okwonga told Uganda Radio Network in an interview that procurement of necessary components for repairing the broken street lights is already ongoing by a contracted service provider.
According to Okwonga, the move follows the recent approval of a supplementary budget of Shillings 500 million for the repair of nonfunctional street lights within the city divisions of Bardege-Layibi and Pece-Laroo. He however says repair works will kick off with only 50 solar street lights this financial year 2021/22, while the majority of the broken street lights will be repaired in the 2022/23 financial year.
Okwonga says the city engineering department will undertake the repair works to cut down on expenses, adding that they have also sought the procurement of standard and durable products for lighting. He notes that the majority of the street light components especially batteries and solar panels that were installed were of low quality making them break down shortly after installation.
Several streets within the city with nonfunctional street lights had become a haven for street thugs who waylay and attack unsuspecting locals at night sparking off concerns from local leaders and road users. The areas include Walter Opwonya road, parts of Acholi road, Jomo Kenyatta Road, Kampala-Gulu Highway, Muroni road, Ring road, Cemetery Road, and Lumumba Avenue among others.
Robert Komakech, the Bardege-Layibi Division Speaker, says that priority should be given to Walter Opwonya road where all the street lights are currently non-functional. He says the area has become a hotspot for attacks by thugs adding that people no longer use the road during the evening and night hours.
Komakech says repairing the street lights is a good step taken by the City council since it will scale down the rampant crime rates in dark hotspots. Last week, the Gulu City council approved a budget of 48.7 billion shillings for the financial year 2022/23.
According to the budget breakdown, roads and engineering took the lion’s share of the budget with an allocation of 24.6 Billion Shillings (50.6 percent) of the total budget followed by education with an allocation of 13.3 billion Shillings. Administration and health were allocated 4.3 and 2.3 billion Shillings respectively while Finance and statutory bodies receiving 774 million Shillings and 912 million Shillings respectively.
Meanwhile, Production, Marketing, and Community services were allocated 810 Million and 485 million Shillings respectively, Natural resources were allocated 390 million Shillings, planning 286 million Shillings and trade and Industry and Internal Audit got 286 million and 112 million Shillings respectively.
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