GOVERNMENT STARTS PROBE INTO CAUSE OF FLOATING ISLAND

Munyonyo Fish Factory security guard Alfred Odong rows a boat near the floating island that docked near the factory on Tuesday. PHOTO BY Stephen Wandera 

By LILIAN NAMGEMBE

Kampala. The government is investigating the source of the floating island on Lake Victoria that has been moving from one site to another since it first appeared at Port Bell in Luzira early last year.

Mr Paul Mafabi, the director for environment affairs at the Ministry of Water and Environment, said a technical team had been formed to establish whether it is a similar piece of land appearing at the different landing sites on the shoreline.
“We shall be in position to come up with a conclusive answer on its cause once we verify that it is the same Island,” Mr Mafabi told Daily Monitor in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said the team is expected to release the report by the end of this week.
MrMafabi also said the report will indicate the likely impact the island will have on humanity and environment.
The floating island sparked excitement among residents, staff and tourists at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Makindye Division on Monday when it docked near the lakeside hotel.
The piece of land, estimated at about five acres, which broke off the mainland and appeared first at Port Bell in 2015, has since moved mainly between Ggaba Landing Site, Port Bell and Bukasa Bay.
Wherever it moves, residents flock to it for both settlement and farming.
Residents said the island last week appeared at Busabala Landing Site but later shifted to Mulungu shore line in Munyonyo on Friday before it moved towards the hotel.
Mr Jimmy Kunak, a guard at one of the sites next to Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Hotel, said: “Tourists and residents pay between Shs3,000 and Shs5,000 for a boat from Mulungu Landing Site to tour the island.”
Mr Frank Muramuzi, the executive director of National Association of Professional Environmentalists, said the floating islands move due to strong winds that blow them from one place to another.
SOURCE; DAILY MONITOR