Encroachers on Ssezibwa Wetland face arrest – Nema

National Environment Management (Nema) has said encroachers who reclaimed a section of Ssezibwa Wetland in Kayunga and Mukono districts will be arrested and prosecuted.

The most ruined sections of the wetland are in Nazigo, Ntunda, Kayunga, and Kasawo sub-counties.

Mr Nicholas Magara, the Nema coordinator of wetlands in the central region, said the encroachers, who agreed to vacate the wetland last year, have refused to leave.

He said with such defiance, they have no option, but to apply the full force of the  law.

“We were lenient and didn’t arrest them [encroachers]. However, this time round, we are going to arrest and prosecute them,” Mr Magara told Daily Monitor on Tuesday.

Mr Magara did not specify when the operation against the encroachers would be carried out.

“The farming activities have greatly ruined some sections of the wetland, turning it into an open land. After carrying out eviction exercise, we shall embark on the restoration activities,” he added.

However, some of the encroachers said they were forced back to the wetland due to lack of land for farming.

“We are landless, but have children we are paying school fees for. We ask the President to allow us to grow crops because we have nowhere to go,” Mr Moses Mukisa, one of the encroachers, said.

The Kayunga District environment officer, Mr Patrick Musaazi, said they are working with the resident district commissioner, district internal security officer and the environment police to take tough action against encroachers.

“We don’t want any political interference when time comes to arrest those people,” Mr Musaazi said.

Records indicate that the wetland, which measures about 80 miles, had shrubs, reeds, woodland and natural grasslands, but the growing demand for agriculture and sand mining have left it depleted.

This has resulted in silting of other small swamps which drain into Lake Kyoga.

In December last year, officers from the police environmental protection unit evicted more than 500 encroachers from the wetland. However, different people have since returned to cultivate crops on the wetland.

 During the eviction exercise, crops such as yams, maize, rice, bananas and vegetables belonging to encroachers were destroyed.

In 2016, Kayunga District leaders went up in arms, protesting the proposed giveaway of the wetland by the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) to an investor for sugarcane growing.

The then ULC chairperson, Mr Baguma Isoke, had written to Kayunga leaders, requesting to lease the wetland to M/s Fakhri Enterprises.

The Ministry of Water and Environment statistics show that Uganda has lost more than 30 percent of the wetlands in the last 23 years.

The law

Section 36 of the National Environment Act provides for the protection of wetlands and prohibits reclamation, erection of illegal structures and empowers authorities to demolish any structure that is fixed in, on, under or above any wetland.

The Act also empowers local leaders in districts to manage wetlands within their jurisdictions and ensure that their boundaries are clearly demarcated.