Nakaseke district COVID-19 taskforce bans sand transporters

Every day, at least 100 trucks transport sand from Kapeeka, Semuto, Kikamulo and Kito sub-counties in Nakaseke district. The sand is sold to construction sites in Kampala city and Wakiso district. But the task force has banned the activities saying that it is impossible to implement, protect the workers and communities against the pandemic.

Fred Nayebare Kyamuzigita, the task force chairperson says that each truck brings in over 20 workers to mine and load sand yet they are not observing the procedures. Kyamuzigita adds that the transporters may carry a positive worker from another district who may end up infecting not only his colleagues but the entire community.

Kyamuzigita explains that they have also restricted the number of occupants in trucks that transport either tomatoes or cattle to one driver per truck to minimize the influx of people from other districts.

Nakaseke district chairperson Ignatius Koomu Kiwanuka says that the ban is intended to protect residents who will be affected most in case there is a reported case in the village. Koomu also accused the sand transporters of defying an earlier directive to reduce workers which forced them to ban the activity.

The task force has ordered the police to work with the parish chiefs to impound any truck that defies the resolutions made. But there are mixed reactions from residents, local leaders and transporters from the areas where sand mining is carried out.

Moses Ssenfuma the LCIII chairperson of Kapeeka sub county says that they will register a loss in revenue which will cripple service delivery. He however said that as the local leadership, they will adhere to the ban to fight the disease.

Richard Ssemuyaba, a sand transporter in Kapeeka sub county criticized the task force for not consulting them and passing a resolution which will leave them with no source of income. Ssemuyaba warned that local youths who have been employed in sand mining may become social menace after becoming jobless.

The district resolution comes after a truck driver was intercepted at Katuugo village in Wakyato sub county in Nakaseke. The driver who tested positive at Elegu border was intercepted in a garden in Nakaseke loading tomatoes with other people plunging the district in panic.

So far 33 contacts have been quarantined at Nakaseke hospital where they live for the next 14 days as they under close observation by health workers.

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