UGX 30bn to blunt shock of displacement for Karuma PAPs

September 25, 2021 in Business, Energy, Trade & Industry by Editor

Energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa adds a building block to a classroom as she flagged off CDAP at Olwiyo Primary School earlier this week

The government has set aside an UGX30 billion fund for the Community Development Action Plan (CDAP), a three-year program designed to bring essential services to communities displaced by the construction of the 600MW Karuma Hydro Station.

Construction of the power station started in 2013, displacing people in the districts of Kiryandongo, Nwoya and Oyam districts in northern Uganda. When the communities moved, they left behind key social infrastructure such as schools, health centres and markets. The bulk of the project affected persons PAPs, have settled around Purongo and Olwiyo in Nwoya districts.

CDAP will see the reestablishment of education, health, electrification and water services as well as livelihood improvements to the new settlements over the next three years.

Primary schools will be built at Purongo, Kamdini and Diima during fiscal 2021/2022. The scope of works includes; school buildings, water harvesting infrastructure, staff houses and VIP latrines. Two 2 classroom blocks, with an office a store room, and rain harvesting tanks as well as 4 staff housing units will be built at Purongo primary School. All new units will be wired in readiness for connection to the grid. In the interim, they will be supplied by solar power.

“We are fully aware of the displacement of communities from Karuma who have now settled in Nwoya District, mainly around Purongo and Olwiyo. That’s why the government has deliberately embedded the Community Development Action Plan (CDAP) intervention to rectify these socio-economic disruptions to enable the affected community cope with the changes brought about by project implementation,” Nankabirwa told stakeholders.

The Minister was launching the expansion of Purongo Primary School in Nwoya District. She asked the local contractors who will be hired to commit to deliver the projects assigned to them in time and to specification.

Dr. Eng. Harrison Mutikanga the CEO of Uganda Electricity Generation Company limited (UEGCL), the operator of the Karuma Hydro Power Station, told the residents that local contractors and suppliers would be considered during the implementation of CDAP.

Subject to availability of funds, CDAP will spread out to expand selected health centres in each of the three districts, with expanded Out Patients Departments, maternity wings, general wards, and staff houses; water supply, including boreholes for emergency, and extension of piped water supply systems to affected communities. Following a needs assessment, there will also be electricity grid extension and reticulation, to selected growth centres and a tourism centre set up The 600MW Karuma Hydro Power Station is scheduled for completion mid next year.