By Bob Owilli
Karamoja — A section of Karamoja legislators has called upon the Office of the President to take keen interest in the mismanagement of water funds meant for the construction of valley dams in Karamoja.
Speaking to the media, Ms. Janet Grace Aletch Okori-Moe, Woman Member of Parliament for Abim District and former Chairperson of Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, said there are a lot of ghost irrigation dams and valley tanks in Karamoja and Teso sub-regions.
According to Janet Okori-Moe, when they moved around as the committee, they discovered that despite the government releasing billions of shillings for the construction of these dams to foster agriculture in the two regions, some dams have remained only on paper.
“Honestly speaking, something must be done because the officials in the ministry have taken Karamoja and Teso as their eating ground. Imagine, what we found was that some of the dams that are being talked about are not even existing; for example, the Pylong Dam, which is supposed to help the community of Kotido, isn’t even existing,” she said.
She added that two irrigation dams that the government released money to fund in Kotido and Abim districts respectively haven’t been built to date, and no one can account for that money.
This publication learned that in 2019, the government released about UGX 75 billion to fund the construction of irrigation dams to foster agriculture in the two sub-regions, but that money seems to have been used to develop individual projects in Kampala.
“What we saw at the site of Pylong is some pond with weeds grown all over the place, and I think that one was constructed by the Ministry of Water, and there was no value for money at all,” she said.
She noted that there is also one in Abim District that isn’t functional at all. She thinks the work wasn’t completed, and those facilities were never handed over to the district.
Chairpersons of the Karamoja region said the Ministry of Water and Environment engineers and others have proved to be fronting corruption rather than doing the actual work.
“We have been told how these officials have gotten posho, houses, farms, and many other things compared to their monthly salaries,” said Mr. Paul Lokol, the Nabilatuk District Chairperson.
According to Mr. Lokol, the only dams Karamoja is still proud of are those constructed under the supervision of the First Lady Janet Museveni when she was Minister for Karamoja Affairs but the rest of the dams being talked about are non-existent, like in Kazibwe’s times.
