Government should offer free life jackets

Allow me to express my disdain to our government technocrats across the spectrum of Uganda’s ministries. I wonder why we have so many of them and yet they do nothing.

What is really the work of the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries if we continue to lose so many people on our lakes? Don’t the lives of our citizens matter anymore? How can we lose over 200 people annually due to boats capsizing and lack of life jackets?

I always thought it was the government’s responsibility through the ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries to monitor every single activity on all the lakes in the country. Why should we let our lakes become death traps when the government can initiate a preventive measure?

Take for instance; the ministry of health in its annual budget allocates funds to distribute mosquito nets to all of Uganda’s population (35 million people) which has minimized malaria death rates compared to the days when there were no free nets.

I believe this same government can do the same thing and provide free life jackets to all passengers who utilize water transport given the fact that on the market, life jackets are almost at the same price as the nets.

Government should make it mandatory to all water passengers through beach management officers and marine police that no one should board a boat without a life jacket.

If the government can engage in preventing death through immunization, what’s so difficult about doing the same thing on our water bodies?

It’s high time policy makers in the Ministry of agriculture, industry and fisheries woke up and do away with the negligence on our water bodies. The rampant boat capsized and death of our people on lakes is simply due to t negligence and this can be prevented.

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