STATDOC NO. 13

REPORT ON THE TRIP TO MASAKA REGION
KATEBO LANDING

10TH – 11TH APRIL 1990

By

J. Ikwaput & E. Coenen.

April 1990.

1. INTRODUCTION

A project field mission was organised between 10–12 th April 1990 to visit the Kalangala Regional Fisheries Office of the Ssese Islands Fisheries Region with a stop at the Masaka Fisheries Office. Mr. E. Coenen, CTA of the project, and J. Ikwaput, Biologist/Statistician, constituted the team which under took this trip. The team left Entebbe on the afternoon of 10th April and made a stop at the Masaka Fisheries Regional Office to deliver some equipment and to discuss various project operational matters. A brief call was made to the District Administrator's office for introduction and the night spent in Masaka. Early the following morning, the team left for Bukakata Pier where the ferry was expected for crossing to the Ssese, Islands. Unfortunately, the ferry had no fuel and after some attempts to make alternative arrangements for crossing it was agreed to postpone the trip to Ssese Islands until a later date. Before returning to Entebbe, the team paid a visit to Katebo fish landing. A map showing the location of the Masaka Regional Fisheries Office, the Katebo fishing area and part of the Ssese Islands indicating the Kalangala Regional Fisheries Office is attached.

2. MASAKA REGIONAL FISHERIES OFFICE.

At the Masaka Regional Fisheries Office (RFO), one Unihut portable unit (14' diameter) and one Olivetti manual typewriter were delivered. The typewriter was checked and tested to make sure it was in good working condition. A site for the erection of the unihut next to the Regional Fisheries Office was also selected. Various operational matters of the project were discussed with the RFO.

2.1. Facilities :

The Regional Fisheries Office occupies one general office room, one little office for the Regional Fisheries Officer, and a little store within a building belonging to the Masaka District Administration. This building was severely damaged during the 1979 war. Later the roof was repaired and other offices have managed to replace their looted doors and windows. The Fisheries office, however, has not yet been renovated and lacks both doors and windows. The only facilities of the office are composed of : 3 tables, 1 chair, 1 bench plus one damaged filing cabinet. The office has no secure place for keeping their documents, typewriter, etc. and is currently storing their documents and equipment in the Veterinary Department stores which are about some 100 meters away.

2.2. Staff.

The Regional Office is manned by the Acting Regional Fisheries Officer, Mr. L. Mugerwa, one copy typist and one stores assistant. Occasionally, the Fisheries Assistant from Nyendo Market comes over to assist the RFO with the statistical compilation for the region.

2.3. Statistical Returns.

Statistical returns from the field do not reach the office on time and sometimes they are not submitted at all. This explains why no monthly reports from the region have been received at the headquarters since the month of September 1989. At the time of the visit, no sign of any activities taking place in the Regional Fisheries Office was observed. The excuse given was: lack of suitable office accommodation and equipment and of stationery.

3. KATEBO LANDING.

Katebo landing, located within Katonga Bay in Mawokota county (Mpigi District), is one of the landings which fall under the Katebo Fishing Area. The landing is situated about 12 Km. from the main Kampala - Masaka road, turning off at Buwama trading centre. The other landings in the area with their distances from Buwama trading centre include : Senyendo (28.8 Km.), Kyabbagwe (38.4 Km.), Bugoma (19.2 Km.), Busimuzi (20 Km.), Buzzami (18.4 Km.), Lubembe (14.4 Km.); and the landings on Bussi and Zinga Islands.

In the past, Katebo landing had its location changed 3 times, all within the Katonga Bay/Bunjako Bay. At first it was located in what is called Lwazi landing, now used as a place for keeping some boats and for their net preparation. Lwazi has a big rock which was originally concealed by water but later on became exposed when some 6 years ago the water level fell and the sand which formed the beach was washed away by waves. This made it difficult to continue using this place as a landing because pulling the boats over the rock damaged them. The fishermen then decided to transfer and land their fish near the former pier which was used by the East African Community for collecting cotton from the locality. Later on the local administration decided to buy some land (located between the 2 old landing sites, Lwazi and the pier) within the Bunjako Bay for use by the fishermen as their present landing.

Presently, Katebo fish landing has about 18 active planked canoes and 5 active dug-outs. These land their fish at the main Katebo landing but after selling their fish some of them move off to the satellite boat landings near their homes to prepare their nets. Three of these boat landings were observed, one of them being Lwazi (2 canoes and 1 dug-out), the other being Odong's place (5 canoes), and the third was about 200m left of Odong's place.

Katebo landing has no facilities at the landing place : there is no office, nor a weighing shed (except a weighing pole) nor cleaning slabs, drying racks and display tables. Fresh fish is just cleaned on the ground. Fish is transported to the markets of Buwama, Bitala Maria and other minor markets on bicycles (8 bicycles on average). The landing is accessed by a footpath from the main murram road and at the time of visit, the landing had a lot of water salad (Pistia stratiotes) floating near the shore. The landing is manned by a Fish Guard, Mr. Pascal Kassaja Kyerondera, who resides nearby.

During the visit at the landing, the fish guard and the RC1 chairman for Katebo, Mr. Henry Lubowa, acting as an interpreter, accompanied the team. When questioned as to the nature of his work, the fish guard revealed that he visits the landing regularly where he counts the fish landed according to species. He does not carry out any weighing since he has no scale. He simply counts the fish, recording the numbers and the value. These records are forwarded to the Fisheries Assistant for on-ward transmission to the Regional Fisheries Office. The Fish guard is immediately supervised by a Fisheries Assistant, Mr. Mugoda J.L, responsible for Katebo, Senyendo, Kyabbagwe, Bugoma, Busimuzi, Buzzami and Lubembe landings. During his time of visit, the FA also participates in collecting the statistics. Apart from Katebo landing, the FA also collects statistics from the other 6 landings all of which do not have fisheries staff except for Senyendo landing which is manned by another Fish Guard, Mr. Lugonja.

The Fisheries Assistant was found at his residence at Buyiwa, about 1 km. from Buwama on the road to Katebo, where an interview was held with him. He revealed that since he received a bicycle and a weighing scale from the project, he visits one landing per day in a week and therefore he is able to visit each landing 4 times a month.

The whole fishing area of Katebo is under the control of a Assistant Fisheries Development Officer (AFDO), Mr. Kawuma Timothy, who also resides at Buyiwa. The AFDO oversees the work of the FA and he is the one who is responsible for statistical collection from Bussi and Zinga Islands. He is also responsible for compiling all the data from the whole area and forwarding them to the RFO in Masaka.

4. DISCUSSION.

From the short interview with the Fisheries Staff of the area it was discovered that the staff in the area lacked motivation due to lack of supervision by the RFO and regular payment of allowances by the Fisheries Department. The estimates for fish landed which were submitted before these staff got scales are highly doubtful judging from the method used by the fishguards. It is likely that they do not even know how to estimate the weight using the numbers of fish and their sizes as is done by some staff. It is also likely that no sampling method for days, boats and fish is being employed in this area. It remains an open question if these fisheries staff really come up with some estimates which they claim to forward to the RFO since there are no records in the Regional Office nor in the Fisheries Department Headquarters for Katebo fishing area for the whole of 1989. Furthermore, the field staff seem to have very little communication with and no supervision by the Regional Fisheries Officer. Hopefully, the project motor-cycle which has recently been assigned to the RFO, will allow him to pay regular visits to his field staff. At the Regional Fisheries Office, there was no sign of any work being done as observed at the time of our visit. When requested for, no copies of any field and monthly reports could be obtained.

5. RECOMMENDATIONS.

For improved statistical collection from the field, the RFO should pay more visits to his field staff for closer supervision. This should not be a problem since he received recently a new motor-cycle. The field staff should also be motivated and encouraged to do serious work by e.g. giving them some kind of financial incentive on top of their low salary. They should also be trained to adopt proper sampling methods. Landed fish should be weighed since weighing scales have been provided. Surprise visits to the field by RFO and the Headquarters staff are necessary to supervise and encourage field staff, especially in view of their future close involvement with the project activities (frame, catch assessment and socio-economic surveys).

6. PERSONS MET.

SKETCH MAP SHOWING LOCATIONS VISITED.