|
|
Uganda: Telecom Companies Erecting Illegal Masts, Says Nema
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Ephraim Kasozi
Kampala
ALL telecommunication companies are not adhering to the basic equirements for erecting masts, the Parliamentary Committee on Information, Communication and Technology has heard.
The ICT Committee, chaired by Mr Edward Kafufu Baliddawa, heard that failure to adhere to the requirements contravenes the National Environment Management Act (Nema) Act.
The committee was meeting Nema and Uganda Communications Commission officials to discuss concerns of various petitioners on the unregulated telecom masts that are being erected in the country indiscriminately.
Mr Baliddawa, also MP for Kigulu North, said the telecom Companies had complained to the committee about the unnecessary delay by Nema to process their applications for environmental impact assessment.
|
According to the Nema Act 1996, "Any developer must obtain a certificate of clearance from Nema before constructing a mast."
The process of obtaining such a certificate involves submission to Nema by the developer, a project brief, scope of works and an environmental impact statement upon which Nema in consultation with other stakeholders, will issue a certificate of clearance for construction of a mast.
The meeting heard that out of 300 operational masts that Warid Telecom has, only 48 have been cleared. MTN has only 24 masts authorised out of 468, while UTL has only one mast that has been authorised. Celtel has 30 authorised masts out of the 318 masts it has, the committee heard.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
