Residents of Bugumba Parish, Northern Division in Iganga Municipality have expressed their dissatisfaction with [power supplier UMEME for their failure to solve a power blackout in the area that has spanned for 3 years.
The locals claim that for the last three years, they have been in persistent darkness, which has led to a huge negative impact on businesses and increased crime rates.
These claim that the only few times they have had power, it has again gone off by 6:00 pm and failed to return until the next day.
Still, when it returns, it continues flickering and remains unstable until when it goes off again for another long spell.
Mark Mulani, the LC chairperson for Bugumba Village confirmed that the matter has been raised to Umeme for the last three years, but nothing has been done.
“We have been having the problem of power for 3 to 4 years now,” Mulani said.
He said that power blackout has forced many tenants to vacate respective rental houses leaving landlords in dilemma as well as locals failing to use their domestic and commercial electronic equipment.
Idiiro Mohammed, the Bugumba central, LC1 chairperson said that situation has left many people jobless since most of their work is power dependent as well as increasing the high crime rates especially theft.
Harriet Namukasa, a resident in the area said that has so far lost 2 television sets and a smartphone as a result of power which always goes off suddenly and behaves unpredictably.
Halima Nabirye also a resident in the area says that the blackout has affected their students to learn electronically during the lockdown as well as missing interesting programs on TV.
“You can’t imagine I have lost all my appliances and that cuts me off even watching the news on television,” said Nabirye.
The situation has forced the locals to have a meeting at chairman Mulani’s home where they resolved to order UMEME officials to remove the electric poles and wires in their vicinity if they can’t fix the matter urgently.
Other locals raised various challenges as a result of the persistent blackout.
Umeme officials when contacted declined to talk to and it remains uncertain whether they intervene or not.
