The Parliament of Uganda has tasked the Government to explain the persistent power outages in Gulu.
Over the years, Gulu district has been experiencing power blackouts for over 12 hours a day, which has affected several businesses.
Members of Parliament now want the government to explain why power in Gulu has been unstable despite the country having surplus electricity.
Lyandro Komakech, the Gulu Municipality MP said power is always off on a daily basis and people are bitter. He says businesses are failing and relocating because there hasn’t been a solution to the power problem.
Lilly Adong the Nwoya district Woman MP says that it is not possible to stay in Gulu due to power blackout. She says Umeme is yet to explain the cause of the outage.
The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga said the matter of power in Gulu is critical. She says that since plans are underway to have Gulu as a city, the power problem should be addressed.
Gulu district has about 60,000 connections to the national grid. UMEME has in the past partly blamed the crisis on the increasing number of T-offs on the Gulu feeder.
The T-off is a high voltage line that branches from the main line. Umeme also says the bad weather conditions have also affected power supply.
There are 45 t-offs in the Gulu feeder from Lira with the longest feeding to Adjumani at a length of 240km, although the recommended length of a T-off is 100km.
– URN
