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By Edward Akaki
Residents of Moroto Municipality are facing rising prices of charcoal in the town areas with almost double the price in less than 3 months. The surge in the prices has sparked worry among residents who heavily rely on charcoal for cooking and heating purposes.
Fiona Loukae, a business lady within Moroto said the increase in the price of charcoal has affected her business that led her to increase her food rates forcing other customers to stop coming to eat. She says the situation has forced her to reduce the size of the business and now the business that was booming is almost shutting down.
Susan Amongin a retailer at Nabatwa market in Moroto said the sack she used to buy between 15,000/= to 20,000/= now is between 35,000/= to 40,000/=. She attributed the rise to the rain that has affected most of the people who burn charcoal.
“Currently, I have decided to increase the heap I used to sell at 500/= to 1,000/= but I have not received any decrease in sales that I make in a day, business is okay”, Amongin concluded.
While having our interview with Amongin, a one Ezra Musinguzi who supplies her arrived with her new stock of two bags of Charcoal. According to Musinguzi, he ferries the charcoal from about 15km out of Moroto town.
“From Kodonyo, Tapac Sub county, Matheniko county, Moroto we buy a bag of charcoal at 25,000/= plus my transport fare of 5,000/= per bag to make the total expenditure 30,000/=. I sell to the people in town here at 35,000/=”, Musinguzi expressed.
According to Musinguzi, a minimum of 30 boda boda men on a daily carries two or more bags each from the different outskirts into the town centre either for sale or for home use by their clients. This implies that over 60bags worth of Charcoal enter Moroto town on a daily.
Zachary Angella, the District Environmental officer Moroto says the price increase in the district is not a surprise to him because the trees from nearby areas of the town center has been depleted which is forcing the charcoal dealers to go far out to get charcoal.
“This people who supply charcoal to the town have to move far now to get it because from our records the trees from within have been depleted due to charcoal burning, I think this has contributed a lot to the increase in the prices”, he stated.
However, he said as the environment office they are worried that if the trend of charcoal burning and cutting of trees continue without replacement, Moroto might be entering into a loop hole of climate change effects in the next five to ten years.
Angella appealed to development partners and the community to come together to embrace practices that protects the environment like tree planting and advocating for reduction in cutting of trees to save the natural life of the district.
