Archive for month: October, 2020

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year affected operations of different sectors of the economy. Especially hard hit was the Tourism industry which was constrained by restrictions on movement, closure of hotels and the ban on international travels.

The Minister of State for tourism, Hon Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi says Uganda lost over 2 bn USD in projected income for this Financial Year, from a sector that brought in 1.6 bn USD the previous year.

As government moves in to revive tourism in the country, experts warn that these efforts should be focused on promoting domestic tourism among Ugandans.

Dr. Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi, a Lecturer at the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism at Makerere University says that traditionally tourism is sensitive to crises, arguing that in times like this one, destinations must adapt a turnaround strategy for the industry to survive.

“We may not control international tourism at the moment but this may be time for us to adapt; we must move towards activating the local markets. Significant numbers of Ugandans are moving outside for holidays. This is time to keep them here and motivate them to come to undiscovered places,” Kamunyu said.

Kamunyu says that the advantage with domestic tourism is that the money Ugandans spend will remain in circulation to support their local business. However, he cautions that tourism agencies must change pricing strategy to suit the local market.

“The fact is that the sector has been slammed because we were used to dollars coming from outside. Now we have to turn to our locals, adapt to their needs and redo our pricing strategy as part of marketing,” Kamunyu urged.

Claire Mugabi, the Marketing Manager of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), says that promoting domestic tourism is part of the body’s marketing strategy.

“As the destination marketing organisation, we are determined to get our tourism sector back on track. In terms of our recovery strategy, the first phase is to position Uganda as a safe destination for travel. We shall be reviving visitor confidence in our nation. Part of the strategy is to aggressively focus on the domestic market. This pandemic has taught us to no longer put our eggs on one basket by only focusing on the international travellers,” Mugabi stressed.

However, Kamunyu fears that labour shed off within the tourism industry as a result of COVID-19 is going to negatively affect resumption, productivity and sector recovery.

“The government and sectoral actors did not adequately plan for and support the labour force that got laid off and lost incomes due to the pandemic,” he said.

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Despite the high demand for sludge manure by vegetable farmers in Gulu, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has said it cannot start selling the organic manure until it’s tested for heavy metals that could be harmful to humans.

Dr. Silver Mugisha, the Managing Director National Water and Sewerage who visited the sludge manure producing site located in Cubu village, Pece-Laroo division in Gulu city last week made the pronouncement after site officials informed him that the laboratories in the region currently do not have the capacity to test for heavy metals.

Kennedy Geria, the Senior Project Engineer at National Water and Sewerage Corporation said that there has been huge demand for the manure especially from vegetable farmers.

“Now that many people are going into commercial farming and subsistence farming, many will demand for this manure because it is organic, unlike the synthetic ones sold in shops,” he said.

He said that in Kampala and Arua where sludge manure plants exist, the demand has been overwhelming especially from the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), and from individual farmers.

“Apart from private farmers, our potential market in Gulu is Gulu University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Gulu City Authority,” Geria said.

However, Geria said customers will have to wait before they can access the manure because NWSC’s lab in Gulu does not have the capacity to test for heavy metals like copper, cadmium, lead and zinc which could have adverse effects on humans.

Geria says these heavy metals are common in industrialized cities with leather and textile industries, although he believes that the danger is relatively low in Gulu since the level of industrialization is still low

The sludge manure plant is part of the first phase of a Shs 82 billion project to upgrade water and sanitation funded by the World Bank and German Development bank (KFW).

Geria said that the sludge manure plant has a capacity to produce 3 cubic meters of sludge manure daily.

Sludge manure, which is made out of the faecal matter drained from private toilets and sewer systems, is used for growing vegetables and for other agricultural uses like balancing soil acidity.

However, if not handled well, the manure may contain heavy metals like mercury and phosphate which can cause harm like lung damage, memory problems and high blood pressure among others.

Reuben Kafero who grows vegetables like sukuma wiki, cucumbers, chilli peppers, and pumpkins said the sludge manure will improve soils on his already exhausted land.

“I will start buying sludge manure once it’s on the market because sludge manure has no effects on the soil since it decomposes,” he said.

Sandra Apio, another vegetable farmer who mainly grows tomatoes and cabbages asked NWSC to speed up the process of testing the sludge manure for heavy metals so that it can be accessible to farmers.

According to Geria, the manure will be ready in December. NWSC sells a 50kg bag of manure at Shs 5,000.

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The National Drug Authority has shut down a total of 80 veterinary drug shops and agro-chemical shops in South Western Uganda for failure to comply with standards.

The drug shops were closed during a 15-day spot-supervision exercise conducted by the Authority to ensure that dealers in veterinary drugs comply with the stipulated standards.

According to Kenneth Kiiza, NDA’s Regional Manager for Mbarara area which comprises south Western Uganda, the closed drug shops are from the areas of Mbarara, Lyantonde, Ntungamo, Kazo, Kitagwenda among others.

Speaking to the media last Friday at the NDA offices, Kiiza revealed that the authority had inspected over 326 outlets in the area and found out that 80 of them were not compliant with NDA’s standards for veterinary drug shops.

He added that a total of 50 boxes of drugs were impounded during the operation.

“This exercise was aimed at improving the supply and delivery of veterinary drugs in South Western region,” he said.

Dr. Andrew Akashaba, the Mbarara District Veterinary Officer said that private veterinarians have been tasked to register with the district for easy monitoring and quality assurance.

Johnson Turyagumanawe, a veterinary drugs dealer in Mbarara central market welcomed the move and proposed that it should be made regular in order to get rid of quacks who take advantage of laxity by the NDA to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

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