Gulu City authorities have launched a major operation to replace faulty and outdated streetlights across the city, in a move aimed at improving urban safety and enhancing nighttime business.
Christopher Balmoi Omara, Gulu City Engineer, revealed that the first phase of the replacement targets repairing 128 solar streetlights along the Gulu Kampala Highway from the Layibi Roundabout to the Regional Police Headquarters Roundabout.
Areas along the highway have experienced poor visibility, contributing to rising petty crime and traffic crashes at night.
The solar streetlights repair will be executed under a framework contract, whereby the same contractor, Zenome Technologies Africa Limited, will keep doing portions of the work until the City meets its objectives of repairing all the damaged and replacing the vandalized solar streetlights.
Omara revealed that ten depletable batteries of at least 540 of the 3,000 solar streetlights that were installed more than eight years ago under the Uganda Support for Municipal Infrastructural Development have gone bad.
Gulu City Clerk Innocent Ahimbisibwe said the streetlights will be repaired at shillings 400 million got from locally raised revenue, which is part of a broader effort to modernise the city’s infrastructure and make it more livable and secure.
Ahimbisibwe expressed concern about the high level of vandalism of the streetlights and urged the security personnel and the community to be vigilant to ensure that the culprits are punished.
He explained that vandalism affects the network coverage of the streetlights because the money that would have been used for installing new lights in other areas is used to repair those that have been vandalized, besides the insecurity and effects on the night business.
Alfred Okwonga, the mayor of Gulu City, said the repair work will not stop at the Gulu-Kampala Highway, but several other roads in the city.
“I am appealing to the community to be patient, because Gulu City is committed to repairing all the stolen streetlights. I am also appealing to the community, the Local leaders, and the police. Let us protect these streetlights because they are very expensive. Once it is put and stolen within a short time, we shall not have adequate money to continue repairing them time and again,” Okwonga said.
Gulu Resident City Commissioner, Ambrose Onoria, who flagged off the project, appealed to members of the community to report to the authorities anyone found stealing the solar streetlights.
Onoria said the city leaders are committed to ensuring that Gulu City remains one of the best and fastest-growing cities in East Africa, and that can only be done through collaboration from all partners and residents.
“Even if you are driving your car and you find somebody who has been standing near a streetlight for five minutes, you should be able to contact the authorities so that we can do the needful in time,” Onoria said.
