Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport says an average of 3,000 people drown in Ugandan water bodies every year but not all incidents are reported.
This was revealed during the first meeting of the technical session of the aeronautical and maritime rescue committee at the ministry head offices last Thursday.
“The information is scanty because not all water accidents are reported but we lose about 3,000 people on our waters every year for instance on Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert and Lake Victoria,” Mr Benon Kajuna Mwebaze, the director of transport at the Ministry of Works and Transport, said.
He said the issue has since prompted the works ministry and Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to come up with the national aeronautical and maritime search and rescue plan.
“As government, we are under national and international law to rescue people in distress. There should be an aeronautical and maritime search and rescue plan to ensure that we have the equipment, the capacity and systems to search and rescue people in aviation and water transport,” Mr Kajuna said.
He explained that at about 3,000 deaths on Ugandan water bodies per annum, they come second to road accidents where 4,500 deaths were reported last year.
Mr Waiswa Bageya, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works and Transport, said the government has set up search and rescue centres and nine weather meteorological stations around the country to monitor marine accidents.
“The Ministry of Works and Transport, signed a Memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Water and Environment to set up and rescue centres, nine weather meteorological stations, and the ministry has a maritime call centre to receive distress calls and engage stakeholders in search and rescue missions,” he said.
Mr Vianney Luggya, the CAA spokesperson, said the meeting is the first sitting of the technical committee of the aeronautical and maritime search and rescue coordination committee which was inaugurated on June 16, 2022.
The government is also signing memoranda of understanding with neighbouring countries like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to, among others, allow teams to access their territories without any hindrance when they have rescue missions.
