Parliament — THE fertility of Ugandans is a cause for worry to population experts.

Legislators on a parliamentary forum have said the country's alarming population growth rate of 3.3 per cent per annum, if not checked, exposes the country to food insecurity and increased maternal deaths.

According to a report by the Parliamentarians' Forum on Food Security, Population and Development, Uganda's population is expected to double in the next 21 years to a staggering 50 million.

"Uganda's population growth rate is one of the highest in the world at 3.3% per annum yet Uganda's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate is 6-7 per cent," the report from the forum reads in part. According to population experts, a country's GDP should be three times more than the population growth rate if its people are to move out of poverty.

Kinkiizi East MP Chris Baryomunsi, who presented the report to Parliament on July 10, said, "One million people are born in Uganda every year. If the trend continues, we shall see millions of Ugandans surviving on imported food stuffs." He added: "Survival on imported food has started because these days when you are going to the village, you have to carry rice and posho which was unusual in the past."

According to the 2006 Uganda Demographic Health Survey, access to health services would become harder as a result of population explosion. It says there would be 'unattended to pregnancies' that could result into increased maternal and infant deaths.

The survey says currently, 16 mothers die daily in Uganda due to complications during pregnancy. "And this will increase if the population growth rate is not checked," said Deus Mulumba, a medical consultant and an ecologist.

Dr Baryomunsi attributes the high population growth rate to the high fertility rate of Ugandan women. "The total fertility rate is estimated at 6.7 children per woman," he said. He attributed it to lack of family planning measures in most parts of the country.

Other countries such as Australia post a dismal 0.9 per cent population growth rate, a figure that has forced the government to give incentives for women to produce more children because the country risks shortage of labour in future.

Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Ogenga Latigo said northern Uganda has the highest early pregnancies. He attributed this to congestion in the internally displacedpeople's camps.

"People in northern Uganda are stressed and that is one of the reasons for the early pregnancies," he said.

Oyam North MP Ben Wacha said Uganda risks having millions of people becoming poorer because there are no resources to meet the increasing population. "We risk having Ugandans who are poorer because we do not have the capacity to contain this explosion," he said.

Minister for Lands, Communication and Urban Development Omara Atubo predicted that the percentage of Ugandans living in urban areas would shoot from the current 12 per cent to 50 percent by 2030.

However the proponents of this high growth rate including President Yoweri Museveni believe that increased population growth rate will provide a market for Ugandan industrial produce. Mr Museveni has on a number of occasions offered the Chinese case study where, the country boasting of over 1 billion people has had a GDP growth rate of 7per cent, the highest in the world.

Mr Baryomunsi, however, said "China has a policy of one couple one child."

Ibanda North MP who is also an economist Guma Gumisiriza, said if the GDP remains at 6per cent, and the population growth rate continues, "there will be millions of Ugandans who are unemployed, and illiterate," in the next thirty years.