Kampala — THE Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has contracted a Dubai-based company, Furgo to carry out satellite census mapping of 40 major urban centres in the country. Bernard Muhwezi, a UBOS official disclosed during a media workshop at the Ridar Hotel in Mukono recently that sh172m would be spent on the exercise.

The exercise, he said, would capture the pictures on the current appearance of the urban centres. The information would be used to prepare the 2012 population and housing census.

"We need Furgo's services to reduce the workload ahead of us. We have few mapping staff and cannot complete the exercise throughout the country in time," Muhwezi explained.

Furgo is expected to finish the work by the end of August. Other parts of the country will be covered by the UBOS mapping staff, Muhwezi indicated.

The census mapping exercise for the whole country is expected to end in March 2012 to allow the population and housing census take place in September.

Muhwezi regretted that some areas were impassable, with fences, which make it hard for the UBOS mapping staff to penetrate.

"By using satellite, Furgo will be able to capture all the information in such complicated areas," he said. Muhwezi said the information collected in the census mapping exercise will be used to demarcate the country into enumeration areas that will be the operational units during the census enumeration exercise.

The data will also be used to generate maps of administrative areas and facilities. "In the 2002 census, we did not use the satellite technology. That is why we encountered lots of problems with enumerating urban areas especially in Kampala city."