Omoro residents lay logs across broken bridge as transport costs climb

Residents in Uganda’s Omoro District have laid logs across a flood-damaged bridge to restore a crossing for motorcycles and people on foot. But the makeshift fix has not ended the cost of broken transport links. One resident said a trip to Gulu City for hospital care now costs Shs20,000 instead of Shs15,000 when riders take a longer route, according to Daily Monitor Uganda (direct).

Pece Bridge collapsed after flash floods in June. Communities have since worked on the crossing along the Lakwatomer–Abole–Koro Abili Road and on the Atyang–Palenga Road, using basic materials to keep people moving. The wooden crossing cannot accommodate traffic beyond motorcycles and pedestrians. Even among motorcycle taxi riders, known locally as boda boda riders, some are unwilling to use it because they fear crossing.

Longer routes, weaker business

Michael Opio, a motorcycle taxi rider in Lakwana Sub-county, said the loss of Pece Bridge disrupted normal business on a major connection to Gulu City and Palenga Town Council. The alternative journey to Gulu stretches to about 26 kilometres, compared with 14 kilometres via the bridge. He said travel from Atyang to Palenga had also increased to 15 kilometres from seven kilometres after a bridge collapse.

Moses Ogenrwot, from Abole Trading Centre in Labora Sub-county, said business with Gulu City declined after the Pece crossing failed. Residents built temporary wooden crossings to help motorcycles and pedestrians get through. Paska Aciro described another consequence: difficulty reaching health facilities. When patients receive referrals from Lakwatomer Health Centre III to Gulu Referral Hospital, she said, riders who avoid the wooden bridge use Moroto Road, a 20-kilometre journey from her home that raises the transport bill.

The community response extends beyond the bridges. In Aremo Sub-county, residents and local leaders filled potholes on part of the Minakulu–Okwir Road with murram, a gravelly road-building material. They paid to hire a lorry to collect it. The road links Omoro with Nwoya and Oyam districts and has been under district government responsibility for more than seven years. Residents said district engineers had inspected collapsed bridges, but repairs had not followed.

A repair programme still to come

Omoro District Chairperson Andrew Obibi Okot attributed the damage to both floods and heavy-duty vehicles. He said a Ministry of Works and Transport engineering team was designing a replacement bridge on the Atyang–Palenga Road. At the time of the report, he expected procurement the following month and construction to begin in January of the following year. He also said the district would address the Abole–Koro Abili Bridge in the coming months.

Okot said the district planned to repair the Minakulu–Okwir Road within the financial year using Shs1 billion from the road fund.

The stakes reach beyond individual journeys. Former district chairperson Peter Douglas Okello and Omoro District Woman Member of Parliament Catherine Lamwaka had warned that farm-support programmes, including the national oilseed project, could be undermined if poor roads prevented farmers from reaching markets. Omoro has 884 kilometres of locally managed roads. The next milestones are the bridge procurement, the promised construction start and whether road-fund spending brings lasting repairs to routes residents are currently patching themselves.