Government reviews laws to punish environment abusers
What you need to know:
- Mr Edwin Chemisto, the deputy general manager of Kampala Serena Hotel warned that the current rate of environment destruction threatens the hospitality and tourism sector.
KAMPALA: Culprits who are convicted of destroying natural resources will suffer stringent penalties as government moves to review the current environmental laws.
The Ministry of Water and Environment has proposed the establishment of environment courts to ensure expeditious trial of cases in regard to destruction of natural resources.
The director of environment affairs in the Ministry of Water and Environment, Mr Paul Mafabi said on Saturday that the proposals are part of the review of environment laws.
“For the last two years, government has been reviewing the Environment Policy because the current one was passed in 1994. Many things such as climate change, oil and gas, electronic waste and all these will be addressed,” Mr Mafabi said.
Speaking at the commemoration of the Earth Hour Environmental campaign in Kampala, he attributed the rampant destruction of forests and wetlands on the weak penalties provided in the current law.
Kampala Serena Hotel with partners including World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) hosted the Earth Hour campaign as part of the global campaign to protect the planet and advocate for concrete action for environment protection.
Earth Hour is an event which involves turning off all non-essential lights to illustrate the country’s passion and commitment to protecting the planet.
Mr David Duli, the country director of WWF Uganda said the campaign is about taking action to limit greenhouse emission by at least one hour by switching off unessential lights, planting trees as well as creating awareness.
“Issues of erratic rainfall, long dry spells affect production in agriculture. We witnessed the hottest temperatures in 2016 and this has had devastating effects of food shortage, death of animals, floods which destroyed infrastructure facilities like roads and death of people,” he said.
While attributing natural resources degradation to lack of awareness, Mr Duli said there is need for positive action to protect the environment.
“Revision of the environment policy is a positive gesture but the lack of the will to implement the enforcement of the laws remains a challenge,” he added.
Mr Edwin Chemisto, the deputy general manager of Kampala Serena Hotel warned that the current rate of environment destruction threatens the hospitality and tourism sector.
“If we do not conserve the environment, we shall have food at low prices and even our customers will spend less. But if we destroy the reserves, our business would be affected which is costly,” he said.
