Mahmood Abdi, the Director of Agriculture and Plantation, Attiak Sugar Factory which sits along River Unyama says that they intend to construct irrigation schemes and water dams along the river to mitigate flooding in Elegu Township and the factory as well as to secure water for the factory`s sugarcane plantation in all seasons.
Stella Auma, a resident of Lajalula Sub County told URN that the poor road network in her area has led to hiked transport fares to the nearest Omer Health Centre II, which is about 32 kilometers away from her home.
Residents in the area say that they are currently living in fear of destruction and deaths due to the resurgence of heavy rains which started last month and have been accompanied by sights of floods.
By Tuesday afternoon, more than 500 trucks had been cleared and left for South Sudan, which has given a sigh of relief to officials within the different areas.
Last month, over 6,000 truck drivers suspended travels to Juba and parked their cargo fleets at the Elegu border at the Ugandan side in protest of armed violence on foreign drivers along the Nimule-Juba highway.
The disease has for the past one week been reported in the areas of Kal A, Kal B, Kal Centre, Labika and Lagak in Pabbo Sub County and Pabbo Town Council.
Among the ravaged crops are rice, cassava, beans and sim-sim belonging to more than 80 households that were already in the final stages of maturity and consequent harvests.
Seventy-five-year-old Bicentina Alal and her 80-year-old husband Tito Okema, have been saving money in a metallic case for over three years. The couple lives with their six grandchildren in Kali-Kali Village in Rec Iceke Parish in Layima Sub County, which is about 50kilometers away from Gulu City Centre.
Geoffrey Komakech, another farmer in Pabbo Sub County is also seeking Shillings 190,000 to buy hybrid ground nuts seeds for his four-acre garden but he has failed to get it.
In the first planting season, the majority of farmers realized low yields due to too much sunshine which was experienced across the region from the months of May to June. This dried up and withered many garden crops that were already blossoming and about to mature.
The road connects the districts of Amuru, Lamwo and Kitgum and Gulu via Palaro. The murram road is currently in a sorry state with numerous potholes, poor drainages, mud and a section of it cut-off and becoming impassable.
In Okidi North and East Villages in Attiak Sub County in Amuru district, more than 100 acres of Shea nut trees have been cut down by the charcoal dealers.
David Kilama, another sugarcane grower wonders why they have not been paid despite opening a bank account and going through all the verification by the government in Kampala. Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Amuru Resident District Commissioner, says that his office has already received notification about the complaints of the labourers.
The team impounded over seven hundred bags of charcoal from the site and confiscated a number of rudimentary tools used by the dealers to cut and burn trees for charcoal burning and timber.
Xavier Sekanabo from the Environmental Police Protection Unit who led the operation said that they have no mercy for the charcoal dealers because they are depleting the environment and indiscriminately destroying the endangered tree species including Afzelia Africana, shea and mahogany among others.
She told URN that she has been in the business for only three months following a connection with a friend and has never cut trees or burnt charcoal but been buying in small scale.
Zedi Male, the Vice-chairperson of the Truck Driver’s Association, insists that the attacks are not being perpetrated by rebels as the South Sudanese authorities are claiming but they are being executed by government forces. Male says that the latest attack occurred near a military barracks.
The six are Richard Otto, Gaetano John Bosco Ouma, Michael Onono, Richard Ocaya, Geoffrey Onen and Geoffrey Kilama, all residents of Okidi North Village in Attiak Sub County Amuru district.
Transport fares from Gulu to Pabo increased from 5,000 Shillings to 10,000 Shillings, Gulu to Atiak from 10,000 to 20,000 Shillings even after restrictions on transport were relaxed.
