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Marine transport on Lake Victoria still a nightmare
2007-08-16 09:26:50
By PST Correspondent, Mwanza
Marine transport passengers between Mwanza and Kagera regions in Lake Victoria have reminded the government on its promise to facilitate purchase of another ship for easy and dependable passage.
Kagera Region bound passengers told PST at Mwanza Port as they awaited to board MV Serengeti, that their security and luggage would be assured if the government made true its promise to provide them with a new ship.
One of the passengers, Hari Masanja, said the current situation was highly dangerous as the said vessel shuttling between the two points were congested with both passengers and luggage most of the times, and that passengers paid fares that were not shown in their tickets.
“The fare on the tickets is 12,000/-, but we are forced to pay 15,000/- on claims that there are changes,” lamented one lady passenger.
Masanja was puzzled that children under ten years of age paid 8,000/-, when in fact they were not supposed to pay at all.
Another lady, Asunat Ayub, a resident of Bukoba Municipality observed that in order to obviate disasters which are bound to happen anytime, the government had to make sure a new ship was bought.
She said most of the vessels ferrying passengers across the lake were defective and could not provide the needed services.
Venance Francis, a businessman, said that due to limited capacity of MV Serengeti, a wave of bureaucracy and corruption had hit Mwanza Port for business items which needed to be ferried to Kagera.
“This is the biggest hitch for us as no one was sure when transport problems in that part of the country would return to normal,” said Francis.
They recalled that when the MV Bukoba disaster occurred, former President Benjamin Mkapa said the government would buy a new ship with immediate effect but the promise had not been kept after more than 11 years.
Journalists from Mwanza, Mara, Kigoma, Shinyanga and Tabora regions are in Mwanza City for training on investigative reporting run by PACT Tanzania through the support of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and US Agency for international Development (USAID).
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