URC needs sh1.5bn to remove floating Island

May 12, 2015

The Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) needs about sh1.5b to clear a huge floating island that recently curved away from the shoreline between Gaba and Namuwongo and settled in Port Bell and Miami Beach in Lake Victoria.

By Eddie Ssejjoba             

LUZIRA - The Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) needs about sh1.5b to clear a huge floating island that recently curved away from the shoreline between Gaba and Namuwongo and settled in Port Bell and Miami Beach in Lake Victoria.

The island, measuring approximately 20 acres across, was curved away two weeks ago and started floating in the areas of Munyonyo and Bukasa Bay, often changing direction as it drifts from one end to another.

The mass has twice blocked the Luzira Port Bell Pier posing a big threat to ships from Kisumu in Kenya and Mwanza in Tanzania by blocking them from accessing the berthing terminals.


Visitors are transported in a boat got from Senene islands. PHOTO/Eddie Ssejjoba

Staff at the Pier however said the floating island on Monday morning had 'migrated' about two kilometres away inside the Lake towards Miami Beach after it was blown by strong winds from the mainland, surprisingly clearing the port in one night. 

"It was a big relief; it has been here for a week, but it would shift a bit and change positions especially during the night," a worker at the port said.

Charles Kateeba, the URC managing director said the floating island was a big threat to water transport as well as business between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Small boat engine travellers from Mukono to Luzira have also been affected, many times changing directions through risky points that could cause accidents.

During the week it settled at the port; most ships at the pier could not leave and incoming vessels had to change direction to access the docking area.


Locals have named the island 'Jaja Mirembe'

One piece of the island broke away and settled on one side of the pier. 

Kateeba said the island posed a big danger to individuals who have turned it into lucrative business by ferrying people across in boats and canoes, eager to tour the site.

They charge a fee ranging from sh2000 to sh5000 per visitor.

The island has crested cranes that stay on it.

The individuals have made base at the island and have erected temporally structures to receive visitors as well as facilitate residents of Namuwonge who regularly go there to look after their gardens.

He said the island could have soft points that could cause accidents or could divide and break away anytime, perhaps killing whoever would be in such spots.

Kateeba explained that URC had written a report to government budgeting for about sh1.5b to protect the port by using dredgers to break the island into small pieces as well as remove solid matter from the Lake bed.

 

"We have plans to rehabilitate Luzira and Jinja ports under a project that will include dredging and protecting them from floating islands," Kateeba explained.

Uganda, according to Kateeba, has no dredgers but hope to secure the machinery from the Lake Victoria Basin Commission if funds were availed to them.

"The medium term solution is to build concrete barriers to protect the port from strong winds and protect the ships that dock there".

"A permanent measure would be to work with stakeholders to protect the Lake shoreline from human activity and keeping all constructions away from the Lake," the director stated.

He recommended that the island should be declared a no go area to protect people's lives.

"It is risky, it can split again because this is a soft mass," he said.

The marine engineer, Aggrey Ojiambo said that although the floating island had cleared but feared that it would come back depending on the direction of the winds, saying it was still a big problem.

"It has not moved far, it can return in just one night, this is also dangerous to ships that can easily breakdown as the propeller eats through the thick vegetation," he explained.

He said that with assistance from the Egyptian government, they were still struggling to harvest another breakaway island that last year came and settled at the port.

Heaps of the remaining earth have continued to block the landing sites and part of the port.                                 
 

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