Only 20 percent of the work on the rehabilitation of Doho Rice Scheme in Butaleja district has been done, five months to the end of the Africa Development Bank (ADB) funded project.
In November last year, Summit Project Limited was awarded the contract to rehabilitate the scheme and was expected to complete the work by October this year but the pace at which the work is being done is worrying authorities.
Assistant Commissioner in charge for water and production under the Ministry of Water and Environment, Engineer Gilbert Kimanzi, who toured the site recently, said Summit Project has failed to do the expected work in a period of one year that was agreed upon.
He said he was shocked with the work so far done, stressing that in previous site meetings the contractor had been promising to finish the work but that up to now there is no big impact.
Kimanzi added that if the contractor fails to complete the work by the end of October, their contract will be terminated.
The district vice chairperson Ben Muyangu said farmers are likely to be affected by the delays.
Kiru Tibeba, the project consultant, however, blames the delay on heavy rains. He says for the past two months, the area has received too much rain that devastated the roads to the site making them impassible.
He says they are stuck with their machines as most roads are now flooded. He however, promised to complete the work by the end of October this year.
Wilson Hapeli, a resident of Namuselu village, in Mazimasa Sub County, one of the beneficiaries of the project blamed the contractors for the delay saying the contract was awarded to them long before the onset of the rain.
He fears that the delay could discourage farmers in rice production.
More than 20,000 rice farmers are benefiting from Doho Rice Scheme. This is the first major rehabilitation on the scheme since its establishment in 1972.
