By Johnson Kanyesige
Residents living in villages adjacent to a stone quarry located at Haibaale Village in Kisukuma Sub- County, Hoima District are complaining about the dynamites being exploded in a rock that is being used in the construction of Hoima Stadium in Hoima City.
The residents of Haibaale, Kyakasaatu and Kasega villages say the debris that fly from the blasted rock destroy their property including buildings and crops yet without any compensation for the loss incurred.
They also complain that the dust raised by the blasts is affecting their health stressing that they develop cough and respiratory diseases as a result of inhaling the sone dust raised once blasting the rock starts.
The affected residents further allege that at the start of blasting the rock, the residents entered into an agreement with Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) – a Chinese construction company to compensate them before it transferred its operations to MS Company prior to the expiry of its contract to blast the rock in September this year.
Mr Shadrach Kirihika, a resident of Kyakasaatu village claims that according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU ) CICO signed with the residents, the company was obliged to compensate them every time it blasted the rock.
As non-compensation complaints continue, the Kyakasaatu Village Chairman, Mr John Mary Amanyire, attributes the escalating Project Affected Persons’ (PAPs) dilemma to political leaders giving a deaf ear to the residents’ plight taking it as a light matter yet their intervention can have it addressed at a higher level and solved once and for all.
He questions the procedures MS Company took over from CICO saying the residents were not notified of the change in blasting the rock as the former company did not meet its alleged obligation in compensating the PAPs as purportedly agreed in the MoU.
Amanyire blames the mess on the authorities at district level.
Godfrey Bainomugisa, the Kisukuma Sub- County Local Government Chairman, says more than 300 households have been affected by the ongoing rock blasting in the area.
The Chairman Hoima District Local Government, Mr Uthuman Mubarak Mugisha, says amidst the complaints, it has come to his notice that some PAPs had been clandestinely receiving their compensation money as the rest continued claiming it.
However, he says in spite of being compensated, the amount of money they had been receiving was paltry due to the lack of a legal valuation process in the assessment of the PAP’s properties.
He also questions how MS Company took over work from CICO without notifying the authorities.
It is against this backdrop that Mr Mugisha pledges the district security committee’s intervention with intent to address the PAP’s compensation issue arising from the damage caused to their properties.
The Hoima Resident District Commissioner, Mr Rogers Mbabazi, also promises that the authorities will engage the company to ensure that the affected communities are compensated.
In the meantime, the RDC says the authorities will halt the blasting activities underway at Haibaale until the company harmonises with the PAPs.
