Government loses wetlands money to speculative encroachers

The increasing encroachment on wetlands in Wakiso and Mpigi districts, particularly on the demarcated route for Busega-Mpigi Expressway, is a result of speculators, who secured land titles in the area in anticipation of getting astronomical compensation from government, a top technical staff at Wakiso District has revealed.

An official in the natural resources department, who preferred anonymity to speak freely about the development, says the poor residents who have adamantly continued to encroach on the wetlands such as Lubigi and Nabazziza, where they have planted crops and eucalyptus trees, are proxies of well-placed businessmen who own land titles in wetlands.
Currently, residents are freely reclaiming the wetlands such as Lubigi and Nabazziza in broad daylight and huge chunks of the wetlands that were once covered by papyrus are now replaced by banana plantations and other crops.
The source says this well-calculated encroachment is to pave way for a total depletion of wetland so that the waterlogged area becomes habitable.
A snap survey around Lubigi and Nabazziza wetlands mid this week revealed that a bigger section of papyrus have been cut down.
This is the same worrying situation in all wetlands on the demarcated routes for Busega-Mpigi expressway.
The four-lane expressway, whose construction is expected to commence later this year will cost $91m (Shs322bilion).
It will include four major interchanges to facilitate interconnection with roads at designated points at Nabbingo, Nsangi, Maya and Lugala in Wakiso District off both the Northern Bypass and the Entebbe-Expressway, whose expansion and construction is ongoing.

In Lubigi, it is alleged that the purported owner, city businessman Ephraim Ntaganda, has allowed residents to plant crops to cause a total drain of the swamp as preparations to put up commercial buildings after completion of the road project.
Others, whose titles are in the demarcated route for road construction project are targeting huge compensations since they are protected by law.

Article 273 of the Constitution vests power over land at the hands of the owners, so one has to be reasonably paid off before land is taken away.
A probe by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire in 2015 into compensations by Uganda Road Authority (UNRA) revealed that 43 individuals were paid Sh20 billion for land in Lubigi Wetland in Busega as government acquired land for the Entebbe-Expressway project.

The probe also discovered that Excellent Assorted Manufacturers owned by city businessman Ephraim Ntaganda, owned a freehold title for 148 acres in Lubigi Wetland.
Mr Ntaganda’s company was compensated Sh18 billion for 2.5 acres in Lubigi.
Mr Paul Mafabi, the director of Wetland Inspection in the Ministry of Environment, says whoever claims to own a land title in the wetlands is holding a fake one.
He adds that an ultimatum given to encroachers to vacate wetlands already elapsed.

Govt speaks out
Ms Mary Gorreti Kitutu, the State Minister for Environment, says the government directive to flash out all wetland encroachers still stands.
The Ministry of Lands spokesperson, Mr Dennis Obbo, says certain land titles in wetlands have already been cancelled.
“As a ministry, we have already cancelled a good number of land titles in wetlands and we have advertised them in newspapers,” Mr Obbo says, although he does not say whether some of those titles cancelled are for Lubigi or any other wetland.

Lubigi Wetland is one of the many wetlands facing extinction in Uganda despite their critical role of filtering, retaining and controlling floods in and around the surrounding districts of Wakiso and Mpigi.
Last year, Mr Esau Mpoza, the Wakiso District environment officer, warned that if nothing is done to conserve the existing wetlands, the area will not have wetlands in the next five years.
Other scientists and conservationists also agree in unison that the current rate of wetland degradation is becoming a national crisis.
In 1962, Uganda had wetlands measuring a total of 32,000km2, but by 1999, they had decreased to 30,000km2.
Wakiso District covers an area of approximately 2,400 square kilometres of which 384 square kilometres are wetlands.