Fishermen warned against dumping condoms in facility

By Francis Emorut               

The mayor of Nakawa, Benjamin Kalumba, has warned the Port Bell fishing community and residents of Luzira against littering a newly installed fish slab facility with condoms.

This, he said, will scare away potential customers and development partners who would want to develop the busy trading area.

“Don’t make the facility a lodge and throwing condoms around as this will send away customers and our development partners who would want to develop the area,” Kalumba told area fish traders and residents.

He urged the community to ensure that they maintain high hygiene and sanitation around the newly installed fish slab facility and a 10,000 litre water tank.

He was at the commissioning of fish platform facility at Port Bell Luzira in Kampala on Friday.

The fish facility and water tank, together worth sh80m, was a donation from Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) and aimed at enabling the fishing community to operate business in a clean environment and to access clean and safe water.

“Most of the fish traders in Port Bell Luzira landing site have been operating in very unhygienic conditions due to limited access to clean and safe water and poor fish handling facilities,” Alasdair Musselwhite, the managing director of UBL.

Some of the fish traders have been operating at the site for over 30 years and have been selling fish in wooden boxes under extreme weather conditions.

Most have been cleaning their fish in the lake waters. The donation of the facility came as a huge relief to them.

They can now upgrade from storing fish in wooden boxes to keeping them under fish slabs.

And the chairman of Beach Management Unit Portbell-Luzira, Stephen Sande, sees the development as a potential for attracting more business.