The members of the Uganda Manufactures Association (UMA) have asked the East African Community to ensure water transport on Lake Victoria is opened to reduce the transport costs of goods from the coasts.
Kampala traders
The members say that it is expensive for landlocked countries to use road than water transport which necessitates the countries in the East African Community to develop water transport.
The legal affair officer of the association Godfrey Ssali says goods in East Africa will remain expensive if transport costs are not reduced tremendously.
He says that transporting a container of goods from Mombassa to Kampala by road is five times expensive than transporting the same from China to Mombassa by water.
Ssali adds that though Lake Victoria is shared by only three East African countries (Uganda , Kenya and Tanzania ), developing the routes on it will extend goods near Rwanda and Burundi through Tanzanian coast.
He says UMA has presented the proposal to the EAC headquarters in Arusha and he believes the outcome will be positive.
The members of UMA believe that if water and railway transport are developed the pressure on roads will also reduce saving countries’ money on road repairs.