The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has tasked the Partner States of the East African Community (EAC) to prioritise infrastructure that can help to overcome challenges that face the water transport on Lake Victoria and Lake Tankanyika.
The EALA which ended its plenary sittings in Rwandan Capital, Kigali last week adopted a report of the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution on the assessment of the measures instituted by the Partner States for the safety and security of the movement of people and goods on Lake Victoria and Lake Tankanyika.
After making trips to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania ports on Lake Victoria and also Burundi for the ports on Lake Tankanyika, the legislators on the committee informed the House that it would be difficult to carry out rescue missions on either of the lakes if there was a boat accident or any other problem.
“The committee observed existing gaps such as absence of updated navigation charts, rescue services on 24-hour basis and a comprehensive maritime security strategy that needs to be addressed to enhance effective communication and minimize accidents on Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika.” Reads part of the committee report.
The committee also noted that there is no harmonized regional policy that can facilitate and coordinate inland water search and rescue missions any time a problem may occur. One such test to the inland water rescue mechanism was tested on Sunday when a passenger plane belonging to Precision Air crash landed in Lake Victoria while descending to Bukoba airport in northern Tanzania, leaving about 20 people dead.
Lake Victoria which is Africa’s largest freshwater lake is majorly used for the transportation of goods being traded between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania while the Lake Tankanyika is for shipment of goods between Tanzania and Burundi.
With the adoption of the committee report, the EALA now wants the Partner States to develop a harmonized policy at a regional level that will lead to a unified approach to facilitate and coordinate inland water search and rescue missions as and when necessary.
Also needed is an updated navigation chart that will be followed by the sailors as a way of minimizing accidents on the two essential lakes. This comes after the legislators found out that navigation charts being used at the moment are very old.
“Navigation charts are very important tools for the safe passage of boats and ships on waterways. They provide water depths, locations of dangers to navigation, locations and characteristics of aids to navigation and other features. The Government of Uganda has undertaken a project in partnership with regional efforts aimed at developing new charts in view of the current ecological changes the lake is currently facing” it is noted.
One of the other threats that may lead to accidents especially on Lake Victoria is the existence of wreckage of ships that either was abandoned after outliving their life span or after accidents. According to the committee, these wrecks pose a safety three on Lake Victoria.
“The committee was informed that wrecks continue to pose a threat to the safety of the lake. Their continued stay in the lake causes obstructions to navigation and creates mobility challenges. They are also a source of pollution since some of them sank when they had fuel on board” the report adds.
Key among those wrecks that need to urgently be rescued from the water includes those of MV Barbus that sank in 2004 and MV Kabalega that sank in 2005.
Strategic security is one of the key pillars of the East African Community and such lakes that are shared by partner states are paramount in ensuring that this is achieved. In other words, the Partner States must ensure that there is routine surveillance on the water for the safety of persons and goods being transported via the Lakes.
The committee recommended that that; “there is need to develop a comprehensive maritime security strategy to enhance effective communication”
The Community has also been asked to; “urgently scale up regional efforts to manage wrecks for the safety of navigation and pollution; establish monitoring networks across the countries that share Lake Tanganyika; determine boundaries or buffer zones around the lake; rehabilitate the existing sewerage treatment stations to avoid raw proliferation into the lake; and ensure sustainable land management by communities that border the lake.”
Meanwhile, after a sub-committee visited the construction site for the fuel storage at Bukaasa in Entebbe, they appreciated the work that is being carried out by Mahathi Infau Uganda Limited.
It has been noted that the construction of the new, magnificent multibillion fuel storage and transport system in Bukasa village off Entebbe Road will address the challenges of fuel shortages in Uganda and 17 countries in the Great Lakes region.
The project which involves construction of 14 fuel tanks, a couple of 220-meter long jetters and ships, once completed will have capacity to store up to 70 million liters of fuel making it one of the largest fuel terminals in East and Central Africa.
The project whose objective is to ease transportation of fuel from Kisumu port in Kenya to Kampala via Lake Victoria will use a speed of up to 10 neutral miles hence making the jetters deliver fuel within 16 hours while one ship will be able to carry about 200 trailers of fuel .
