UGANDA, Lira | Real Muloodi News | After stalling for almost a year, phase II construction works of a maternity ward and theatre at Ober Health Centre III (HCIII) have resumed.
The Ministry of Health confirmed the upgrade of Ober HCIII to an HCIV status and recommended the construction of a new maternity ward and theatre in 2020. The Ministry released UGX 300 million to finance the project.
However, the construction works, which were being undertaken by BP Enterprises and Construction Company Limited, stalled at the foundation level in 2021.
Freddy Owiny, the Lira City Acting engineer, explained that work could not move on as planned because the money was exhausted. He also partly blamed the delays on the changes made to the construction design from a normal to a storied building by the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry has now released another UGX 349 million for phase II of the project, which will include constructing the beams, columns, stairs, and the first floor (solid concrete). This will be done in four months and in correlation with the new construction design that has been handed over to the contractor.
The city authorities tasked the contractor to ensure that the work being done is of good quality and it will stand the test of time.
Dr Willy Okullo, the Managing Director of BP Enterprises, assured the leaders that quality work would be done within the specific time.
Sam Atul, the Mayor of Lira City, tasked the community surrounding the facility to consider providing more land for expansion, saying that very soon, the facility would be elevated to a district hospital yet it does not have enough land.
Hilary Okello, the in charge of the facility, is optimistic that when the construction work is complete, many mothers will be served, and referrals to the Regional Referral Hospital will be reduced.
Currently, Ober HCIII serves between 80 to 100 clients daily and conducts between 60 to 100 deliveries in a month.
Early this month, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, who is also the woman MP for Lira City, paid an impromptu visit to the site and discovered that work had not gone beyond the foundation level.
The disappointed Minister wondered why work had stalled when the City had all the resources needed to execute the work.
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
Patrick Ogweng, Lira’s Former Deputy Town Clerk, Charged in Land Fraud
