Kampala — OVER 500 Ugandan cultural and natural sites are in danger due lack of appropriate laws, a senior tourism official has said.

"Sites like Wamala Tombs are decaying. Others such as Ntutsi Mounds are being destroyed by encroachers," Rose Nkaale Mwanga, the acting commissioner of the department of museum and monuments in the tourism industry, said.

Ntutsi is an area formerly inhabited by the Bachwezi people who had migrated from Ethiopia before it was occupied by the Bantu, while the Wamala Tombs is the old burial site for Kabaka Ssuna II of Buganda.

Mwanja said the sites were facing danger due to lack of funds to maintain them, ignorance of the people neighbouring the sites, and land encroachment.

She also said the department had recorded 1,000 sites but only three had been registered with the World Heritage Sites. The sites are Kasubi Tombs, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Rwenzori Mountain Park.

Mwanja made the remarks last Wednesday during a sensitisation workshop on conservation and management of cultural heritage properties in Uganda at the National Museum in Kampala.

"We are in the process of registering Kibiro Salt Gardens in Hoima district but it is tedious and expensive," she added.

The programme officer for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Daniel Kaweesi, appealed to the Government to sensitise the masses about the importance of cultural sites and heritage.

"The Government has not given attention to culture and yet it is of great value. Culture is business nowadays and many countries earn a lot from it," Kaweesi said.

He also urged the Government to put in place a law on the patent rights to cultural products like bark cloth.