Why reopening of landing sites in Masaka has delayed

According to Mr Peter Ssenkungu, the Masaka District finance committee chairperson, they had embarked on assessing the closed fishing villages and sensitising fishermen about the accepted fishing practices, but the rising water levels,  which started in May, interrupted the programme.

“We had started assessing those sites and registering the  fishermen that meet the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries  guidelines, but floods forced fishermen away and we were unable to continue with the exercise,” Mr  Ssenkungu said in an interview on Wednesday

Last year, the Masaka District Council resolved to work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries to register fishermen and assess the landing sites that were closed in 2017 for reopening.

With this recommendation, councillors intended to boost the district’s local revenue base that had reduced and also save fishermen that lost employment. Available records show that the district loses about 200m in revenue annually from closed landing sites. This implies that the district has lost more than Shs1.6b in revenue in the last eight years.

However, Mr Ssenkugu promised that their team is to resume the exercise since water levels at various landing sites have started to subside.

Option

“We have made an assessment and found out that the water levels are yet to normalise;  we are going to begin from where we stopped,” he added.

Mr Augustine Musoke, a prominent fisherman in Buwuunga Sub-county,  told this publication yesterday that the ban greatly affected the usual lifestyle of people.

“The ban has taken long without being lifted, which forced many people to embrace farming in their home villages and I doubt whether they will be back to carry out fishing,” he said.

In 2017, the government of Uganda closed more 20 landing sites, which were spread in various districts around Lake Victoria. In an earlier interview with Daily Monitor, some commanders of the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) in Greater Masaka indicated that the closed landing sites will never open again because they were being used by unscrupulous fishermen to deplete the lake.

Background

The government in 2017 closed more than 20 landing sites in various districts around Lake Victoria. In Masaka District alone, of the 18 landing sites, only six are operational. Some of the closed landing sites include; Kafuga, Kisamba, Kyondo, Kisonzi, Mumpu, and Mutemante, all  in  Buwunga   Sub-county,  and Kyasa, Mumpu and Kakyukyu landing sites in Kyanamukaaka Sub -county. Other businesses such as bars, shops, restaurants, and fuel stations which were also operating at landing sites, also closed.