Solar-powered streetlights have recently been installed in Arua City as part of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development-USMID project.
These streetlights are located on three major streets in the central division: Go Down Road, Pajulu Road (Ediofe Cathedral Road), and Arua Avenue Road. This installation aims to improve visibility and safety for pedestrians and motorists in these areas.
Each solar street light pole has a lightning arrester, an inbuilt solar panel, and an earthing system.
The solar lighting project has excited some residents who have often in the past feared operating in dark spots.
Kizito Drabile, a boda boda cyclist who stages along Arua Avenue road recalls that before the installation, several people lost their property as well as lives due to attacks by criminal gangs.
Patrick Aluma, another motorcyclist in Arua city says that due to lack of security lights, many of his colleagues had abandoned working at night since the roads had become a spot for criminal gangs.
According to Sam Wadri Nyakua, the Arua City Mayor, the newly installed solar-powered street lights are worth over 1.4 billion shillings. Wadri appealed to the city dwellers to guard the street lights from being vandalized by thugs since the lights equally beautify the city, especially at night.
Khemis Muzaidi, the Mayor of Central Division in Arua City explains that the newly installed street lights could enhance the local revenue since the streets can facilitate night markets.
Arua City is among the initial beneficiary local governments who benefited from the USMID program in 2013 whose overall objective is to enhance the institutional performance of urban Councils for improving service delivery. Others are Lira, Gulu, Soroti, Entebbe, Mbale, Tororo and Jinja.
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