The impact of access roads on the socio-economic well being of the people in Uganda

Abstract

This study sought to find out the “Impact of Access roads on Socio-economic wellbeing of people” in Budadiri County. Access road connect one geographical area to another, they are broken down into surfaced district roads, unsurfaced district roads, feeder roads and small bridges. It established various problems such as high transportation costs, decline in performance of school going children and completion levels, slow rates of development of other infrastructure and decline, reduced agricultural production. The major objective of the study was being the impact of access roads on the socio-economic wellbeing of people, specific objectives of the study were to; assess the impact of access roads on incomes from market access and sales, assess the impact of access roads on children education levels, to assess the impact of access roads on development of other infrastructure. The study adopted a cross sectional design involving a correlation approach to establish the relationship between variables. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire and interview guide that captured both quantitative and qualitative data from respondents. A sample size of 50 respondents was chosen and analysis was done using epi-data and SPSS analysis software. The findings revealed that access roads have a significant relationship on incomes from market access and sales where (86%) of the respondents agreed that better access roads led to higher prices for agricultural produce while (2%) disagreed that they don’t lead to higher prices, it was revealed that there is a significant relationship between access roads and children education level where (78%) of the respondents agreed that better access roads lead to increase in school enrollment and better performance and (12%) disagreed that better access roads don’t lead to better performance, it was also revealed that there is a significant relationship between access roads and development of other infrastructure where (58%) agreed that access roads accelerate other infrastructure development such piped water and electricity and (12%) disagreed that access roads lead to development of other infrastructure. From the findings, access roads play a vital role on the socio-economic well-being of people. It was recommended that market areas and areas around school areas should be given priority when planning to construct roads, this would ease access in-terms of travel time and reduced transportation costs of goods to the markets, and more supervision on local government roads projects so as to ensure quality roads that are beneficial to the local populations and emphasis should be put on widening and tarmacking the existing roads to facilitate more vehicles in all weather conditions so as to attract investments despite the climatic conditions. Key words: Market access and sales, school enrollment levels, development, employment, agriculture,infrastructure, regional and inter- regional markets.