At least 20 people survived drowning on Saturday morning when two boats collided on Lake Victoria between Buvuma Islands and Lolwe Island in Namayingo District, Uganda.
According to ASP Godfrey Luyiga, the officer in charge of Bukooli Island, the incident occurred on August 19 at around three in the morning.
Two boats collided at Lineila in the Buvuma Islands, but thankfully all of the people on board were saved and are now on Lolwe Island. One of the vessels capsized.
Luyiga claims that one of the boats collided with another boat carrying sand from Lineila in Buvuma Island to Jinja City as it was travelling to Lolwe Island from the Ripon Landing Site in Jinja City.
The passenger transport boat only sustained minor damages, according to the police, while the boat carrying 10 passengers and 10 tonnes of sand sank after the collision on Lake Victoria.
“The passengers who were on the sand-carrying boat were rescued and placed on a passenger boat and that is how all the 20 occupants survived death,” Mr Luiga added.
He attributed the accident to poor vision and failure to observe guidelines. “The two boats were moving without any lighting system that is why they collided.”
Mr Bosco Nyebenza, the Lolwe Sub-county LC3 Chairman, said all the passengers aboard the two ill-fated boats had been rescued and safely evacuated to Gorofa Landing Site in Lolwe Island where some received treatment.
Police say despite issuing a ban on night travel on Lake Victoria, many boat operators continue to travel during the night, which is a challenge.
He said: “We were simply lucky that only one boat sank; otherwise, we would be speaking about a large number of people who have drowned.”
The accident occurred only two weeks after an overloaded passenger boat carrying 34 passengers, charcoal, fish, and fresh foods capsized, killing over 20 people and rescuing nine.
According to police, the accident was caused by bad weather, a lack of life jackets, and overloading.
