By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Roads are an integral part of the transport system. A country’s road network should be efficient in order to maximize economic and social benefits. They play a significant role in achieving national development and contributing to the overall performance and social functioning of the community. It is acknowledged that roads enhance mobility, taking people out of isolation and therefore poverty. In China for instance, the government has popularized this belief by emphasizing that for any economy to develop, transport must start off first which will later stimulate other sectors to develop in an orderly fashion.
Apart from health and education, the next important sector any country should invest the largest chunk of her resources is that of transport. But even within the transport sector government should put more resources in roads because they are the most critical in terms of internal and cross boarder trade and human movement. In contributing to community’s broad economic, social and environmental goals, the principal role of the road system is to facilitate interaction between people and the exchange of goods and services by providing effective equitable land-based accessibility to a wide range of places and by enabling safe reliable mobility of people and transport of goods with efficiency required to compete in the global economy. Road transport remains the most commonly used not to mention cheapest and convenient means of transporting goods and services from one place to another. In addition well, designed and planned roads especially in cities and towns add splendor, beauty and orderliness of the metropolis.
Uganda’s urban development and expansion has consistently been growing at a steadfast rate but without a corresponding rate of growth of roads. As a result, the sprawling urbanization is not easily discernable because of incoherent road infrastructure development. A first time visitor to Kampala may think that Uganda has the worst road infrastructure in both urban and rural areas. But to the contrary, poor roads in Uganda are mainly in urban areas. Rural roads especially those categorized as national roads are not so much in a sorry state as the ones in towns and trading centres. In fact, Uganda’s rural roads are in most cases better than those of our neighbours in the region.
The poor urban road infrastructure in Uganda has been endemic because of lack of consistent and harmonized urban planning and transportation policy. The continuous urban expansion of Kampala city into surrounding areas without regard to road infrastructure enhancement has led to a poor road network characterized by, congestion, narrowness, poor maintenance and road reserve encroachment. The unrelenting rural-urban migration has also put a strain on the already limited road network in Kampala. Kampala in fact, arguably has the worst roads of a capital city in the whole world. It is also one of the filthiest towns at the same time. Some people have jokingly referred to Kampala as the world’s capital (headquarters) of potholes
Infrastructure development including road asset acquisition is not a cheap process. Developed countries have had to dedicate quite a lot of resources to the transport sector to reach where they are. They spend a lot of time planning how they want their towns to look like. They follow these plans with the strictness that is required. They have well defined laws and policies that guide their development. Their citizens do not put up structures without approval from city authorities and in accordance with the larger development plan. There is coordination amongst different stakeholders in the development of cities. For instance the water supply and treatment agency would not dig up a road to lay pipes without due consultation with the city authorities and the agency in charge of roads. The ducts for water, telephone lines, electricity and other services are all provided for during the initial construction stages of the road. There is constant consultation on how the city is supposed to be developed which creates thorough engagement that determines the trend of development of an area in a specified period of time. This is what has been largely lacking in the case of Uganda and in other countries in Africa. The commitment in terms of resource allocation and policy support for our roads has not been forthcoming. The public has always come out to talk about the poor state of roads but this discussion has for a long time failed to generate the required momentum for policy makers to act.
The last three years or so, have however shown an accelerated interest in road infrastructure development than had previously been witnessed in the country. The creation of a government agency, Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) and Uganda Road Fund (URF) with clear mandate to oversee the transformation of roads in Uganda has heightened the public interest with animated expectations that Uganda’s roads can only be made better. Government, development partners and other players are all showing unrelenting zeal in road development and maintenance with considerable budget allocations that are required to fulfill the need for sustainable financing to enable continuous investment in roads. Civil society which had hitherto showed limited interest in infrastructure development in Uganda has joined the fray, an act that is likely to enrich monitoring, supervision and policy enhancement for this sector. The commitment and dedication already shown by UNRA for instance in its less than three years of existence signifies an important policy shift in favour of road development in Uganda.
Uganda’s current road network comprises of 20,000 km of national roads (managed by UNRA), 13,000Km as district roads, and 30,000 km of community roads. Of these only 4,500 is paved (tarmac). It is estimated that government has been constructing approximately between 100-120 km of new paved roads in the last ten years. This has been due to limiting factors such as lack of capacity on the side of both government and contractors. It is however now envisaged that this capacity is likely to increase given the resoluteness that government’s designated agencies have already exhibited in just a few years of their operation. We may thus see the current low rate of new road construction doubling or even tripling in the coming years. If Uganda national Roads Authority (UNRA) were to target to make up to 800Km of new roads every year, we would have the entire country networked by paved roads within a period of less than ten years. I want to believe that a new dawn has come for our roads to become better because the voices are stronger and the dedication is unwavering both from state and non state actors.
Mutabazi is the Executive Director of Uganda Road Sector Support Initiative (URSSI)
Email: mutasamste@yahoo.com
Tel: 0772-882547
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