KAMPALA – MPs have joined their counterparts from West Nile to urge the government to immediately address the power outages which are long overdue in the region.
The House on Thursday adopted a motion urging the government to immediately address the electricity supply problems in the West Nile region. The motion was tabled by Ora County MP, Lawrence Biyika Songa.
In his motion, Biyika urged the government to urgently provide funds to the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) to supply fuel to ELECTROMAXX, for them to generate the licensed 8.2 megawatts of electricity to be supplied to West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRECO) for stable electricity supply.
To address the power shortage in West Nile which has never been connected to the national grid, the government in 2003 granted a concession agreement to WENRECO to generate, distribute and sell electricity for 20 years.
Another company, ELECTROMAXX was introduced to supplement power generation in the region following the constant failure to supply electricity by WENRECO.
Biyika in his motion tasked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to fast-track the evacuation of electricity (132 KV line National Grid) to West Nile and also speed the work at the substations in Arua and Nebbi districts to enable the region to get connected to the national grid.
The motion also called for a forensic audit of the operations of ELECTROMAXX to ascertain whether Uganda had obtained value for money for the period ELECTROMAXX has operated in West Nile.
The motion also urged the government to release all the required funds to speed up the completion of the 6.6 megawatts at Nyagak 111 and replace the second turbine at Nyagak to generate a 3.5 megawatts installed capacity instead of the current 1.7 currently being produced.
The MPs present in the House unanimously seconded the motion, and debated in its favour, calling on the government to resolve the power challenges in the West Nile region.
Vurra County MP, Yovan Adriko noted that corruption in the energy ministry is causing people from our region are suffering so we request you people to help us.
Terego west MP, Joel Leku added that the parliament is here to offer a solution. There is need to supervise Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) it appears they have failed in their duty and are sleeping on the job.
Nebbi district woman MP, Agnes Acidu told fellow legislators that as west nilers, when they talk about power, our temperatures rise because they have heard a no of insults on this issue. They wish the political leadership and the line ministries to address the problem once and for all. Our leadership is afraid because whatever is promised has never been fulfilled.
Padyere county MP, Isaac Ismail Otimgiw, explained that the deadline has been moved to next year yet they had refused to renew the contract of service provider. “Insecurity with in the areas. We don’t have connections along the main roads and we hope the issue is going to be worked on as soon as possible,” said Otimgiw.
Aringa north MP, Godfrey Onzima informed the House that they had a meeting which had energy officials and minister. The issue of power and infrastructure is serious and urgent. Failure to have power in west Nile region seems to be a political issue. In NDIII focus should be on infrastructure. We are still struggling when it comes to development since we don’t have good roads and market.
Maracha district woman MP, Jennifer Driwaru said that social-economic transformation is not there in the region. It’s our prayer today that enough is enough that let the ministers come to our rescue.
Upper Madi county MP, Isaac Etuka reminded the MPs that somebody is misadvising the president by calling on the service providers to do their job and stop defending themselves otherwise power outages may take longer if not addressed now.
The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, said that the matter of electricity in Arua has been pending for a long on the floor of parliament and needs to be handled on the Floor of Parliament for a long time.
He said that the Electricity Regulatory Authority had previously detailed how ELECTROMAXX did not have the capacity to deliver on the contract.
“The information I have is that whereas they were charging money for eight megawatts, they were supplying only five megawatts. Later, ERA discovered that these people were being paid for the electricity they were not supplying,” Tayebwa said.
The Deputy Speaker assigned the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to travel to the region and ascertain how the issue of power can be resolved at once.
He also tasked the energy minister to assess how much was invested in ELECTROMAXX compared to how much electricity they supplied. He asked the committee to proceed quickly and work with guidance from the Attorney General.
