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Gulu wetlands degraded for farming
A farmer clears papyrus at Layibi stream, one of the encroached wetlands in Gulu Municipality recently. PHOTO BY JULIUS OCUNGI
Gulu- About 300 metres from Layibi main roundabout in Layibi Division on Gulu-Kampala highway are sugarcane and vegetable plantations on both sides of the tarmac road leading to Gulu Municipality.
The plantations sit on what was once a wetland formally covered with thick papyrus swamps in Layibi and Pece divisions.
But due to population pressure, hundreds of farmers have since encroached on the wetland and turned it into farmland.
Statistics from the municipal environment department indicate that 60 per cent of the more than 400 hectares of papyrus swamps coverage have been destroyed in the past years in Gulu Municipality.
Mr Oyaro Koyo, a resident of Cubu Village in Pece Division, recalls that the area once endowed with plenty of papyrus in the late 1980’s was degraded due to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency, where many people who fled to the towns to cultivated in the swamps for survival.
“The papyrus swamps were vacant and used to cover the entire Layibi stream belt. We only cultivated near the swamps but when the war intensified, people who had nowhere to live started using them,” Mr Koyo says.
He notes that the wetland also played a key role in conserving the environment and providing a habitat to aquatic species and that to date, the amount of rainfall in the area has greatly reduced.
“In the nineties, this land used to be a haven for catfish. We called it a fish basket because you could not fail to catch fish. But there is nothing currently. People have destroyed all the papyrus swamps which used to be their habitat,” Mr Koyo says.
Papyrus mats market
Mr Koyo says though many people are harvesting the papyrus plants to make mats, the activity is less dangerous compared to turning it into farmlands.
Mr Amid Wazemba, a farmer, intends to grow vegetables on half an hectare wetland he recently acquired from another local in Cubu Village.
Mr Wazemba has already prepared the swamp to grow tomatoes and cabbage. He says he had grown vegetables before and got good yields in Holy Rosary Parish, one of the endangered wetlands in the municipality.
Mr Wazemba says though he knows the dangers of destroying the wetlands, he has no other alternative but to use the available land for agriculture to sustain his family.
“I have children at home who need to eat. They also have to go to school. The only areas that can support growing vegetables are wetlands,” Mr Wazemba says.
Car washing bays
The papyrus swamps are also being threatened by numerous activities springing up near them, mostly car washing bays.
Mr James Amuku Ochora, a casual worker at Northern Link car washing bay in Layibi Division says the high rate of unemployment has forced many people to rely on the wetlands for economic benefits.
At the washing bay started about 15 years ago, Mr Ochora says 22 youth are earning a living from washing cars, which he says would not be possible if they did not to encroach on the wetland.
“We are aware of the dangers this activity poses to the environment. But if one is to also think critically, without us working here, where would we be? We would not have decent lives,” Mr Ochora says.
He notes that they have currently embarked on restoring the papyrus plants by conserving the available plants.
Environmentalists have warned that the rapid destruction of the papyrus plants on the wetlands could see the plant depleted.
Authorities speak out
Gulu Municipal environment officer, Mr James Ocaka, says human pressure on the available land coupled with ignorance on the importance of wetland conservation is aiding the current papyrus plant destruction.
“Illegal activity is likely to set a bad precedent to the environment. Papyrus swamps play key roles in sewerage purification, water conservation and act as habitat for aquatic lives,” he says.
Mr Ocaka says they have embarked on demarcation of wetland boundaries in a bid to conserve the available wetlands from being degraded by human activities.
He notes that already, 280 hectares of papyrus swamps have been demarcated in Layibi and Pece divisions, adding that some 120 hectares is left undemarcated.
He adds that plans are underway to start processes of restoring the degraded papyrus swamps by next financial year which will see all activities and buildings on the wetlands destroyed.
Gulu Municipality has experienced severe water crisis in previous years. Early this year, Oyitino dam, the main water reservoir that supplies the town, dried up.
Environmentalists attribute the water shortage to the increasing destruction of water catchment areas.
Uganda loses about two per cent of its wetlands annually, which is equivalent to 752 square kilometres countrywide.
In January this year, President Museveni ordered wetland encroachers in the country to vacate within one month or be forced out by the police.
