EMEDO inaugurates program to limit drowning in L. Victoria

TANZANIA: The Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO) has launched a special programme at Lake Victoria aimed at reducing accidents in the water in the country.

Founder and Executive Director of EMEDO, Edituruda Lukanga made the statement in an interview with the Dailynews reporter saying that the projects aim at educating fishermen and residents whose activities are based around the lake, it is also important that they take precautions to avoid drowning.

Ms Edituruda added that the project is being implemented in cooperation with community-based groups known as Beach Management Units (BMUs) and other stakeholders.

“The implementation goes right to the island because in our stay at the areas, we discovered that people on the islands do not care about life jackets, ” she stated.

According to the EMEDO executive director, statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that more 200,000 people drown yearly and 90 percent of them are in developing countries, including Tanzania.

“Tanzania is not exempted from this matter because if you look,the country is blessed to possess a great percentage and use it for transportation, fishing and now there is the whole issue of the blue economy. So, the issue of safety in water is a priority,” she added.

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Further details from WHO shows that 42 people die in water every hour in the world due to various reasons, including non-compliance with water safety rules and limited availability of life buoys.

On his part, Lake Victoria Flood Prevention Project Manager, Arthur Mugema said high cost of the life jackets required government concern to reduce especially tax on the importation of the life jackets.

“Another challenge we have identified is the scaecity of the life jackets and the cost of real-life jackets, especially the ones with the highest quality to help a person who does not know how to swim…and because most fishermen do not have them. according to the fishing law, the person with the mandate to buy a life jacket is the owner of the vessel,” he said.