Stop encroachment on vital wetlands
What you need to know:
The issue: Ruining wetlands
Our view: It is important that we walk the talk and free wetlands from all encroachers. This is the way to go. Where evictions are done, measures should be put in place to ensure that no one returns to it.
Yesterday, this newspaper carried a story on encroachment on the River Ssezibwa wetland, which spans Mukono, Kayunga, Nakasongola and Luweero districts. Farmers in these districts are planting rice, maize and yams in the swamp. One farmer says he zeroed in on the wetland when he found out that it was no man’s land.
A senior environment officer in Kayunga District said encroachers have been evicted from the same wetland twice yet they keep returning to the wetland. Authorities in charge of protecting and conserving such wetlands should realise that it is not enough to merely evict people. The response by the farmer cited above, for example, reveals a gap in sensitisation of the public on natural resources. While some defend their activities in wetlands by waving their land titles from the Land Commission, it appears that others believe that no man’s land is theirs for the taking, which is a misconception. We recommend that sensitisation be emphasised alongside measures such as evictions.
In 2016, after the Water and Environment ministry released its ‘Wetland Atlas for Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono’ report, the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), said it would implement a 2014 Cabinet directive to cancel titles in wetlands.
To date, many encroachers still carry out activities on wetlands although despite the directive to cancel directives to cancel titles in wetlands. When all the affected wetlands, some which the report said are on the verge extinction, be free of encroachers? There have been a few demolitions of structures, for instance, in the Kansanga wetland, but even these seem to have been done half-heartedly as these structures have since been replaced with others.
The fact that Uganda has lost more than 30 per cent of its wetlands in the last 23 years has been quoted several times since the Water and Environment ministry released its report. We have experienced what this means when the rains come and the floodgates break open, making roads impassable, washing away bridges, and making the spread of diseases easier.
In the case of River Ssezibwa where encroachment is causing silt to enter the river, the effects will be more apparent in the dry season. It is, therefore, important that we walk the talk and free wetlands from all encroachers.This the way to go. Where evictions are done, measures should be put in place to ensure that no one returns to it.
In the past weeks, our neighbour Kenya has demolished significant structures erected in wetlands in order to restore the natural resources. We should emulate their resolve and get rid of encroachers on all our vital wetlands.
