The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Environment has commended power regulator-ERA for ensuring that supply of electricity to Mbale Regional Referral Hospital is stable.
According to the committee led by Dr. Emmanuel Otaala who is also the MP West Budama South, the decision to allocate a direct line going to the hospital is a step in the right direction since the health facility has been complaining of power interruptions.
“A direct line going to the hospital is a good initiative. That’s very important because a hospital with unreliable power, it’s very dangerous. As a committee, we are happy for this” he said during a tour of Mbale Switching Station in Sino Mbale Industrial Park.
The members during their tour of the substation, noted that even as the hospital is near the power station, a recent visit to this hospital by the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances, showed that the health facility was facing challenges of unstable electricity.
However, according to ERA board chairperson Dr. Sarah Wasagali Kanaabi, the authority gave Umeme Shs3.2bn to use on putting back to normal power supply in Mbale City; a job that has been successful.
“The task was to upgrade the network in Mbale. This is aimed at improving power supply in the City. As you know, this City is growing very fast but some months ago, we had power problems the reason we allowed this network upgrade by Umeme” she said.
Meanwhile, Umeme’s head of network operations Joselynne Rwabwogo, appealed to the community to embrace this direct line project to the hospital which is coming in form of a cable. She said the community needs to ensure that the cable is not vandalized.
“We have a project of fixing a dedicated line going to the hospital. We shall have live supply and we expect the community to embrace the project. They should not vandalize the cable” she said.
Meanwhile, state minister for energy Opolot Okasai, said government is in the process of establishing a permanent power substation in Mbale. He said already cabinet has pronounced itself on the matter.
“This (existing) station is mobile. It was got from Tororo and soon it will go to Hoima. That means we need a permanent substation in Mbale” he said adding that for a direct line now to go to the hospital, it is a big relief to government.
“We were concerned because the hospital was suffering unreliable power supply. We’re now going to show it to the MPs who allocate us the money that we are putting a direct line to the hospital” he said.
The minister commended ERA for organizing the trip to enable members audit it’s activities for which resources are allocated.
“We are here to show MPs what the money they allocate us does. Already the budgeting process is around the corner and we’re going to ask for more funds. But they (MPs) need to know the basis for which they give us money” he said.
Otaala commended ERA for the job well done.
“As we approach the budgeting season, we need to ascertain; did citizens get value for money we allocated? Our work is to check government, (we) do oversight. If you (ERA) tell us we need a substation, we need transformers in Mbale, is the transformer there? Is the substation there? We had to come and see for ourselves” he said.
The committee alongside ERA team led by Dr. Wasagali Kanaabi and C.E.O Eng. Ziria Tibalwa Waako also toured Soroti and Lira substations.
In Lira however, the visiting team ordered for suspension of works on the construction of a perimeter wall at the substation. The decision according to Eng. Ziria arose from signs of poor workmanship on the site.
The site manned by Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited is currently putting up a perimeter wall. Through it’s subcontractor called Doxa Engineering Uganda Ltd, the works were however, found to be of low standard.
The members were particularly concerned that the concrete coppings didn’t meet the required standards as they lacked reinforcements like steel bars in them hence breaking.
“We have decided to stop them and we’re going to bring it to the attention of UETCL because we want value for money. The samples we saw were failing. There’s no sign that these people have design papers” Eng. Ziria said. The committee supported ERA in suspending the works saying there’s no value for money.
“They should stop their work. They are not following any prescribed procedures” Otaala said.
