Poverty and Environment

Dear Mr. Vision did you Know that we can’t lift people out of poverty if we don’t conserve the environment and natural resources they rely on. And we can’t protect the environment if we don’t address the needs of people in poverty.

It’s the poor who depend most on natural resources for their livelihoods, and who suffer most from the impacts of climate change, deforestation, overfishing and other environmental problems. Environment and development issues can’t be separated.

   

Uganda declares 2017 year for Tourism Development

BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

Uganda’s Minister for Tourism Ephraim Kamuntu (C), Minister of state for Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda (R) and Boniface Byamukama from the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (L) hold a placard that declares 2017 a tourism year in Uganda and the year for tourism industry development.(PHOTO BY SAMUEL NABWIISO)

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism has stated that the year 2017 is a year for tourism sector development hence tasking its tourism promotion and conservation agencies to initiate new ideas which will drive the sector for the next four years. 

According to John Ssempebwa, the Deputy Executive Director of the Uganda Tourism Board, they have come up with new ideas especially in marketing, product development, research and quality assurance with a main of promoting the country’s tourism sector both internationally and domestically. 

“In 2017 we shall organize the Second Africa Birding Expo to showcase over 1000 species of birds seen in Uganda, an accolade which makes Uganda the only African country with most bird species,” said Ssempebwa during a press conference in Kampala.

Under marketing, UTB will focus more on tourism products where the country has more comparative advantages like birding and mountain climbing.

“By the end of 2017 all Birding and Mountain Climbing Clubs from around the world will have known Uganda’s birds and Mountains. This will be done through the birds and Mountain expos,” he said.

Other marketing strategies which the tourism promotions agency intends to rely on include continued use of International Public Relations firms, foreign mission to market the country’s Tourism potential and attending International expos. He said all these strategies, if well implemented, will bring in more visitor’s to the country.

Uganda recently contracted public relations firms to market Uganda in the United Kingdom and Germany. According to Ssempebwa, by end of 2017 the total number of visitors from the two countries is expected to increase.

“The number of tourists visiting Uganda from these countries is expected to increase by at least 35,000 this year. We shall continue to host more persons from the targeted source markets, person that we can work with to tell our stories to the world,” he said.

On domestic Tourism Marketing Uganda Tourism Board will engage in school outreach programmes where they expect to reach out to very many schools and Educational institutions to create and maintain tourism clubs while creating more. On product development, Ssempebwa promised more Tourism products such as Religious Tourism, Cultural tourism and other products. 

Uganda Wildlife Authority officials, Uganda’s top conservation body, said they have put in place infrastructures that support the development of Tourism industry in 2017. Charles Tumwesigye Director Conservation at UWA said they plan to construct more accommodation facilities in National parks by expanding the accommodation capacity in Kidepo National Park, Lake Mburo and Murchison Falls National Park.

“UWA has given concessions to four private developers to put accommodation facilities in Kidepo Valley and Lake Mburo National Park.

The concession process for accommodation facilities in Murchison falls and Queen Elizabeth National parks is in advanced procurement stage. These initiatives will increase affordable accommodation in the parks which is still big challenge currently,” said Tumwesigye. On easing Transport to support domestic Tourism UWA plans to procure five Tourism buses which will be dedicated to taking tourists to the national parks of Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and others. Tumwesigye said Transport is still a big challenge affecting the development of Domestic tourism in the country.  

Declaring 2017 as year for Tourism Development the Minister of Tourism Ephraim Kamuntu said the Ministry is committed to support all Initiatives that are developed with the Intention of driving the sector. 

Kamuntu said the tourism sector is among the 23 sectors which the president wants to be promoted because of its capacity to create more jobs in the Economy. 

Uganda was recently recognized by Rough Guides a leading travel publisher in the UK as the country being globe and number 1 in Africa as among the top ten leading destinations to be visited in 2017. The country also in2012 was named top tourism destination by lonely planet with Kidepo Valley National Game Park as one of the best wild places 

Caption: Uganda’s Ministers of Tourism Ephraim Kamuntu (M), Godfrey Kiwanda Minister of state for Tourism (R) and Boniface Byamukama (L) from the Association of Uganda Tour Operators hold a placard that declares 2017 a tourism year in Uganda and as the year for tourism industry development.

EU wants EAC to invest more in solar

BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

Minister Simon D,Ujanga together with Soroti Municipality Member of Parliament Ariko Herbert cutting the ribbon at the commissioning of the 10MW Soroti solar power plant(photo by samuel nabwiiso).

SOROTI, UGANDA - East African states have been asked to invest more resources in the development of renewable power projects like solar energy where the region has a better comparative advantage as compared to Hydropower which is more expensive to finance.

Development partners say the climate conditions in some countries within the community such as Uganda supports the development of solar power but the country has not yet exploited such opportunities which have kept Uganda depending too much on Hydropower and biomass as sources of Energy. 

 Speaking during the commissioning of the US$ 19 million solar photovoltaic project in Soroti, Eastern Uganda, the Head of European Union delegation in Uganda Ambassador Kristain Schmidt said Uganda is conducive for solar power development because of the climatic conditions and the regulatory framework.

 “Uganda is a good place to invest in solar energy. The regulatory framework is conducive and the government rightly recognizes Uganda’s energy future must be renewable. 

It is great that this is now triggering private sector interest in solar power generation the government should continue attracting more investors to invest in solar power generation in the country because Uganda has many sites where the major plants can be established to generate more renewable energy,” Schmidt said.

 The Soroti Solar Power Plant is considered as the biggest solar power plant in the region. It is made up of 32,680 photovoltaic panels and generates 10 megawatts of power. 

It is the first facility to be connected to the national grid, which is expected to supply low carbon electricity to over 40,000 homes and business in the area.

This is according to experts from Access Uganda Solar Limited, a joint company between EREN RE and Access power which owns the Soroti plant. Commissioning the plant, Uganda’s Minister of state for Energy Eng. Simon D’Ujanga said the government will continue working with the private sector with the support from the development partners to diversify the country’s power sector.

“The strong collaboration which the government has been having with development partners and private sector has supported the government to embark on the construction of Mega Hydro power project such as Bujagali and the ongoing power projects such as Karuma and Isimba which is about to commence. As government we are going to borrow the same model for solar power,” said D’ Ujanga.

The 10 megawatts plant was developed under the Global Energy Transfer Feed in Tariff (GET Fit) a dedicated support scheme for renewable energy projects managed by the Germanys, KfW Development Bank in Partnership with Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) and funded by governments of Norway Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union. 

GET Fit’s objective is to help to make renewable energy sources more affordable and therefore more accessible in the Eastern African block. In Uganda, the programme is to support and overcome investment barriers for private developers of small – scale (1-20 MW) renewable energy projects. The programme will enable the realization of 17 projects with targeted total installed capacity of roughly 170 MW.

Once all the projects supported under GET Fit start generating electricity, they will improve security of power supply and increase generation capacity in Uganda by about 20% and thus help to add much needed low cost and clean generation to the Ugandan energy mix and also seeing more than 1.2 million Ugandan getting connected with electric power. Apart from improving power security, the GET Fit program will also support the country to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide by about 11 million tons thus helping the country to pursues acclimate resilient low carbon development path.

 David Corchia the Chief Executive officer EREN RE revealed that they are committed to develop other power projects in Uganda and replicate the same to other African states provided the Business Environment remains conducive to them.

“We wish to express our gratitude and thanks to the organizations and individuals who made the construction of the largest solar power in East Africa possible. As a global renewable energy independent  power producers, we take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the African power sector and we look forward to replicating this model in other districts in Uganda and even in many other African countries,” he promised.