In February 2006, the National Resistance Movement and President Yoweri Museveni had a hard time convincing West Nilers to vote for him. To many here, he was paying the price of the many undelivered promises, top of which was the Nyagak Hydro power plant.

But 10 months later on December 12, the CZECH construction firm SKODAEXPORT Company Ltd started construction work on the dam in Nebbi district.

The highly billed project had delayed for nearly two decades despite repeated promises of "we shall soon have power". Officially the delay was because of financial strains in the treasury, a story that did not rhyme with the campaign promises.

In the early 1990s, Rt. Rev. Frederick Drandua, the bishop of Arua Catholic diocese put his priestly robes to more use beyond the pulpit to lobby his Italian friends to bankroll the dam construction but the government reportedly reneged on its commitment to co-fund and the works stalled.

But the struggle to give light to his people nearly cost him his life after an assassin tried to kill him, reportedly unhappy with him for meddling in affairs beyond his priestly duties. The alleged assassin handed in his gun. But his efforts may now finally pay off with the project now under way.

As West Nile Rural Electrification Company better known by its acronym Wenreco, a private firm and subsidiary of Industrial Promotions Services largely owned by Agha Khan Foundation starts the works on the 3.5mw project on River Nyagak in Nyapea Sub-county, the electorate here awaits with anxiety if government is again at its characteristic ping-pong political game. The question being asked is, will the project stall again?

This is because in the past, President Yoweri Museveni would time election campaigns to tout the urgency to construct Nyagak only to abandon it once the polls were concluded.

During a site tour for West Nile political and civic leaders on December 12, Nebbi district woman MP Catherine Akumu Mavenjina said: "This is a great day; and seeing is believing,"

On February 3, (20 days to the all important February 23 2006 elections) Museveni laid the foundation stone to herald the beginning of the dam development and it has taken another ten months before the issue has resurrected.

"We are very lucky to have this project started and only hope that the speed of execution is quickened," Mavenjina quipped.

So far on the ground, SKODAEXPORT contractors and Sobetra sub-contractors have opened several access roads to ferry construction material to the undulating site; established a satellite office in the vicinity and appointed dam specialist George Afi Obitre-Gama as the resident engineer to oversee the Shs15b project works.

Afi said they would build a 130 cubic meter dam on the upper side of the river and convey the water through gigantic intake and high-pressure pipes suspended over a bridge before tunneling it through a hill to power the turbines at the generation house.

To deal with complaints from locals affected in one way or the other by the construction, a committee has been established.

Like Ms. Yunes Acibo, who says she is dissatisfied with the meagre compensation offered her by Wenreco.

"I feel disgusted because how can they only pay me Shs4, 000 to compensate for a large plantation that has been destroyed?" Acibo asked.

Hundreds of people have had their plantations and houses destroyed but Wenreco regional manager Rajab Swaleh said the compensation amounts were computed based on technical valuation and not arbitrary consideration.

As the wrangles of dissatisfaction rages on, the nearly 2, 000 power consumers in Arua and Nebbi towns are expectant that their nightmares of exorbitant tariffs for the 18-hour-a-day electricity that Wenreco supplies with its 1.5mw thermal plant installed in Arua would end once the hydro dam is completed.

Josef Stransky, the site manager of the main contractors has already announced that they would complete construction of the 3.5 megawatts plant and switch it on before Christmas 2007.

If that were to be the case, would NRM re-invigorate its dwindling fortunes in the six (now seven) districts in West Nile that unanimously voted against it in the February elections?

The answer is really a muddled pack and depends on which side of the political divide one espouses.

Mr. Paschal Angala, a local political critic in Okoro Constituency (Nebbi district) told Inside Politics that the government should not use the start of the power as bait for votes.

"Museveni should not hold us at ransom with the dam and use it as an appeasement policy but rather push for the speedy completion of the power," he said.

But Arua RDC Omony Ogaba says the people of West Nile should stop being ungrateful and reciprocate the government's good by supporting it during the forth-coming elections.

"The people of West Nile should stop doubting this government. We have provided the tarmac road and now the power is coming. NRM always implements its promises but if you just continue doubting us, we may be forced to make your doubts come true," Ogaba said with a strain of frustration. But all this doubt not withstanding the construction of this dam and the accruingd benefits are vital for the people of the region.