Loam soils raise construction expenses in Kabarole

Officials inspect a broken bridge in Kabarole District. Construction of such bridges needs more material. Photo by Felix Basiime. 

By Felix Basiime

Posted  Monday, August 5  2013 at  01:00 [http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Loam-soils-raise-construction-expenses/-/688342/1936992/-/mhjw4k/-/index.html]

In Summary

Kabarole District might have a beautiful scenery and fertile soils but when it comes to construction of buildings and other structures, the soils give in easily to earthquakes, which has in turn increased the costs of construction.

Kabarole
Is Your Foundation Rock Or Sand? Reads www.aBible.com quoting Mathew 7:24-27. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

To understand these words of wisdom well, you have to visit Kabarole District, a place rich in loamy soils and at the same time prone to earthquakes. Kabarole is what it is because of the loamy soils or black soils. “It is true we have loamy soils in Kabarole and everything has positives and negatives,” says Mr Juma Nyende, the former district chief administrative officer.

Due to the loamy soils, Kabarole is leading in natural beauty and tourism is high with fertile land and is wet throughout the year, thereby producing enough food.

“These loamy soils are the backbone of Kabarole, the beauty, but they also present a challenge on infrastructure especially when it comes to roads, 70 per cent of the district is covered by loamy soils,” says Mr Nyende. “Where we have to murram, we have to compact a lot,” he said.

“There is population pressure on land and people use all their land and when it comes to widening the roads, it is a challenge compared to other districts,” Mr Nyende observed before he was transferred to Sembabule.

Expensive compensations
“To compensate land in Kabarole is very expensive due to loamy soils, an acre of land is not less than Shs5 million,” he said. The loamy soils in the district have made it difficult for infrastructure development and as a result, the district has lost billions of money in construction of pit latrines and bridges that collapse each year.

According to the district chairman, Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, loamy soils have made it impossible for engineers to build strong feeder roads and bridges in the district.

Last year, two pupils of Buhesi Primary School in Buhesi Sub-county narrowly survived death when a pit-latrine collapsed on them.

The district education officer, Mr Patrick Rwakaikara, then said more than 100 schools in the district lack pit latrines. “More than 100 schools need pit latrines, they are either not enough, filled up or collapsed,” Mr Rwakaikara said.

Loamy soils have forced authorities to change technology of constructing pit-latrines. “The old method of constructing pit-latrines has been abandoned, now we dig 10ft instead of 30ft and line the pit with bricks which now costs Shs15 million as opposed to Shs5 to 10 million for the same size.”

Construction of bridges too has changed. The span has to be very long as opposed to two metres from the river bank. “The local bridges are now anchored far away, costing Shs50 million instead of Shs30 million,” Nyende observed.

Mr Nyende says government has been several times asked to consider the soils, topography, high intensity of rains, maintenance and inaccessible materials such as marrum in the district before deciding on the funds to allocate to Kabarole District.

“As a district we have asked central government to consider us differently than other districts when allocating funds for constructing roads, bridges and general infrastructure in districts,” Nyende said.

He added that the district has about 250km of feeder roads and central government allocates only Shs483 million for the whole year for roads and bridges despite the different soils and topography or availability of murram.

Cost of construction
According to Mr Nyende, this money cannot be enough for construction and marruming a 20km road. The district needs more than Shs6 billion to make strong and lasting roads and more than Shs10 billion to construct strong bridges.

At the moment, engineers in Kabarole collect murram and sand from neighbouring districts when constructing roads and buildings.

Areas such as Rwimi, Kabonero, Kateebwa, Bukuuku, Kicwamba and Kasenda and parts of Hakibale sub-counties have lacked enough schools and health centres for a long time as constructors hired later abandon the job due to the high cost of transporting materials to the sites as the roads are slippery.

Loamy soils have not only affected individual developers but also the district budget by 30 per cent.
“Loamy soils have affected our budget, materials for construction are scarce, we get good murram and sand from Rwimi and Kasese to construct roads, we got lake sand from Mbarara for our new administration block (at Kitumba),” said Mr Nyende.

Any technician taking a contract in Kabarole has to consider the factor of loamy soils and earthquakes in his or her plans, cost it and advise the developer accordingly.

“Black soils are soft soils and soak more water and are not at all good for creating a foundation base for construction,” says Mr Amos Mugisa, a technician in Fort Portal town. He said Kabarole’s soil profile has loamy soils on top, sandy, rocks (with pozzolana) and red soil below.

“So we have to sweep off the loamy soils first at the sites because we have to construct on a firm ground which is the red soils. In some areas like Kitumba, in Fort Portal, the red soils are near at around 2ft but in most places they are deep,” Mr Mugisa said.

“For example, on Ruhandika Street, in Fort Portal town, most buildings’ foundation had to be as deep as 10ft,” Mr Mugisa observed, adding, “All these factors must be put into consideration lest your building will collapse due to loamy soils or a strong earthquake.”

“We strictly use columns (extra reinforcements) at major specific points, iron bars, aggregates, sand, cement which is concrete as a compulsory from the foundation,” he said. “Ring beam is a must in the district whether a building is small or big if you are to build an earthquake-bearing building.”

Ring beams
He said public buildings in Kabarole must have two ring beams where one has to be underground. All load bearing walls that bear the weight of the roof must be nine inches wide compared to six inches wall in other areas, this means extra cement, sand, aggregates and labour.

According to Mugisa, a four-bedroom house, self-contained, costs about Shs130 million in Kabarole as compared to the same size of house constructed at Shs110 million elsewhere in Uganda.

When you compare Mr Mugisa’s figures with Mr Julius Bagira, the district engineer Rukungiri, they do not differ much. “A four-bedroom house, self-contained in Rukungiri costs around Shs80 million but in Kabarole where there are loamy soils and earthquakes, the cost of putting up the same size of house can’t be less than Shs 120 million,” says Mr Bagira.

A walk through Fort Portal Town, you see most strong buildings fortified by strong pillars like the King’s palace, to guard against earthquakes.

However, cracks of the 1994 strong earthquake are still seen at Muchwa building, the kingdoms administration block and at Boma, the district’s old administration block. The last earthquake was experienced on Tuesday morning (July 30) in Fort Portal.

fbasiime@ug.nationmedia.com