Arua district local government on Wednesday auctioned up to 150 bags of charcoal which was impounded from dealers. The impounding of the charcoal followed an ordinance passed by the district to control deforestation which was blamed on increased charcoal burning.
But as hundreds of turned up to buy the charcoal, a handful of traders whose charcoal was impounded attempted to stop the public auction.
Boniface Alioni, the district secretary for production says they had already given out instructions to everybody who wanted to do charcoal business to start by planting trees because most charcoal dealers don’t mind of the environment and the trees they cut down. He says the district gave out free seedlings to people but many of them refused t plant.
Alioni says the district will use the money realized from the auctioned charcoal to plant more trees. Each bag was sold at 15,000 shillings as opposed to 30.000 shillings on the open market.
But some of the traders whose charcoal was impounded accused the district council of starting to implement the ban without giving people enough sensitization. Robert Obini, who lost 50 bags of charcoal, says he has already instructed his lawyers to sue the district. He says he was not doing illegal business because it is the same district that gave him license to deal in the business.
Rita Maturu, another trader says if the district doesn’t want them to do charcoal business they should identify for them another source of income.
Arua district slapped a ban on exportation of charcoal last month after traders from mainly Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo reportedly flooded the villages and started buying charcoal in bulk. This reportedly attracted several people into charcoal business putting pressure on the environment.
