KALANGALA DISTRICT TRAVEL INFORMATION

When it comes to serene white sandy beaches, natural rain forests and water speculate world, there is non other than Kalangala with the best. The many Islands that make up the Ssese Islands provide more breathtaking experiences of life in Africa’s’ biggest lake, Lake Victoria. This is a paradise in its making that provides a perfect get away destination from the hustle and bustle of the main land with in Uganda.

Kalangala is a paradise in Lake Victoria with Island resorts such as the Bulago Island beaches and the Chimpanzee sanctuary on Ngamba Island. With over 13 forests, uncountable beaches and over seven hours of sunshine, Kalangala provides the perfect holiday or relaxation retreat. This is just a tip of the iceberg that has continuously attracted both local and foreign tourists to the Island district. Besides a growing tourist destination, the Ssese Islands are rich lands with fertile soils, abundant water resource, natural tropical forests and above all smiling faces when ever you visit.

POPULATION

Kalangala has a population of 34,907 whereby 20,886 are male and 14,021 are female.

HEALTH

The district is divided into two sub health districts whose centres of operation are the health centre (HC) IVs. These are headed by a medical officer. Kalangala is served by 12 health units;

Two (2) HC IVs, Six (6) HC IIIs and four (4) HC IIs, one (1) HC – Bumangi is operated by an NGO; The Roman Catholic Church. All the HC IVs have a maternity ward, general ward, laboratory and store. The HC IIIs have an Out Patient Department, maternity ward and staff houses.

There are a total of 20 hospital beds in the district and only one Voluntary Counselling and Testing – VCT centre.

Public health in the district is still very poor. Latrine coverage stands at only 45%, this means that very many of the people use the bushes. This has led to many infections such as diarrhea and unclean water. People are cramped up in the already congested landing sites without pit latrines such sites include Busindi in Mazinga and Lwamba in Bukasa.

The health situation in the district is that;

There are no functional theatres at the HC IVs and most health centres do not have adequate space, equipment and staff for the effective delivery of health services.

All the health centres have not yet been upgraded to acquire the minimum approved building structures to address the problem of working space.

Five (5) parishes do not have infrastructure for health facilities.
The district faces staffing problems. There are a few trained staff. The knowledge and skill for some of the staff is inadequate to provide a minimum health package to the population. For the few staff better accommodation needs to be provided especially in the peripheral areas such as on Mazinga Island.

The HIV/Aids prevalence in the district has not yet been ascertained but it is widely believed that the infection rate is increasing. At Kalangala HC IV; the only centre with VCT facility, the rate stands at 34% a lot higher than the national rate of 6.1%. Districts’ efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS prevalence include community sensitization.

A local quality assessment survey in the district indicated that most of the participants about 72.6% men, 53% women and 61% youths had knowledge of at least two ways on prevention of HIV/AIDS. But, the problem is that very few of the interviewed actually used condoms regularly. Only 51.6% men, 205 women and 20.6% youths regularly used the condoms with their partners.

Prostitution, rape, high mobility of people, drug and substance abuse and myths and misconceptions about condom use rage high among the population. And also, there are fewer women; many AIDS widows, high promiscuity rates and the inability of the women to negotiate safe sex with partners have led to the increase in the infection rate in Kalangala.

EDUCATION
? 18 government aided schools
? One privately owned
? 3 community schools
? Enrolment stands at 3,867 pupils (1,764 are girls)
? Pupil – teacher ratio is at 37:1
? There are three (3) secondary schools
? Enrolment is at 572
? There are two (2) Tertiary Institutions

By 2005, the enrolment of pupils had increased to 3,867 from 2,400 in 1997 thanks to the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. However this is still low because from the analysis of the population structures in Kalangala, it has been noted that only 38% go to school. This means that 62% of the school going age children are not accessing primary education.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Fishing and fish related businesses. This industry employs over 75% of the economically active population. The total fish catch in metric tons in the years 2003 and 2004 was; 10,000 and 11,430 – Nile perch and 1,930 and 1,820 – Tilapia respectively. The district has a total of 55 gazetted landing sites. Out of these, only six (6) have the proper fish handling infrastructure. However, there are plans to construct other infrastructure. These have been classified into three categories/ classes. The facilities will include; fish slabs, toilets, piped water, waste pits, a fence, a fish inspector and fish tabs.

Mweena and Kitobo fish landing sites have been included in the Local government plan to be developed into first class fish landing sites with funds from African Development Bank.

The estimated number of boats in the district is 2,800. These include motorised boats, canoes and sails.

The problems faced by the fishing industry in Kalangala include; 25 – 30% of the fish caught going bad. This is so because of the lack of fish handling facilities and limited local capacity to ensure that the quality of fish is maintained.

Food crops grown include cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, pineapples, and leafy vegetables. Cash crops include coffee (2,371 acres), sugar cane (124 acres) and Oil palm (80 acres).

The other crops being introduced are the fruit trees (Oranges and mangoes) as and the Moringa tree which is good in fighting disease is at the same time nutritious.

Bidco an International cooking fat/oil producer have set up a palm tree plantation in the district. The palm project is the first and largest big scale plantation in the Island district. This has provided employment opportunities to the locals.

For Livestock farming, Kalangala district is involved in production of cattle, goats, ducks and poultry (chicken).Recent estimates have the livestock population at 2,999 cattle, 1,235 goats, 7,000 pigs and 250,000 poultry.

INVESTMENT

Kalangala has a number of private businesses and co-operative societies. However there is lack of working capital in Cooperative Societies and lack of trading facilities as well as financial assistance.