A water pond dug for irrigation in Agago District
The proposed establishment of a multi-billion pilot irrigation scheme in the Sub-counties of Guru-guru and Amuru in Amuru District hangs in balance over resistance from land owners.
The district, in partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment, identified 474 acres of land in the two sub-counties to establish Ayila Irrigation Scheme to promote agriculture.
The scheme funded by the World Bank under the Agriculture Cluster Development Project is intended to benefit 704 households in Turdakatuba, with a catchment population of 3,520 in the villages of Ogali in Amuru Sub-county and Ayila in Guru-guru Sub-county.
However tempers flared last week when a section of land owners blocked engineers from mapping the proposed land citing a ploy to grab their land.
The blocked team included engineers from the Ministry of Water and Environment and WAPCOS Ltd, a consultancy firm contracted for the architectural design of the project.
However, Amuru Sub-County Chairperson David Ocira told our reporter in an interview on Thursday that some of the land owners resisted the move due to limited knowledge about the project.
He notes that the land owners, about 24 in total had not received proper information on the benefits of the project.
Ocira says that although some of the land owners have since been briefed and convinced, two other households have declined to cooperate alleging that the government may end up taking their land.
He says that a majority of those resisting the project are not real land owners but people with biased minds on development.
The District Production Officer Simon Peter Komakech says the negative mindset of the community and some leaders towards the irrigation scheme is likely to affect its establishment and implementation, if not addressed, He says that whereas other districts are implementing the pilot scheme well, the resistance seems to only be affecting Amuru District.
“When we identified the land, we sensitized the locals on the benefits but there are those in upper offices who are hesitant because they benefit from issues of land,” Komakech says. Komakech rallied the land owners to embrace the project saying that it has an enormous benefit on all year-round food production in the district.
According to Komakech, the irrigation scheme will provide piped water to the farmlands of the beneficiaries on which the scheme sits. Water for the irrigation scheme will be drawn from River Aswa.
The scheme is one of the three irrigation pilot schemes across the country the government started plans to establish in 2018 after receiving money from the World Bank under the Agriculture Cluster Development Project.
The others are Lumbuye Irrigation Scheme in Iganga District, Bukagolo Irrigation Scheme in Bugiri District, and Aswa Irrigation Scheme in Nwoya District.
Ayila irrigation scheme is expected to cost 30 billion Shillings.
-URN
