Leaders ask government to tighten grip on wetland encroachers
Bushenyi Woman MP, Mrs Mugisha(long dress) with leaders and other stakeholders launching the Ntungamo piped water supply works on August 29. PHOTO/ZADOCK AMANYISA
What you need to know:
- Eng. Kiggundu said the Nyaruzinga wetland, from which NWSC taps water, had run out and moved from producing one million liters of water per day to 900,000 liters per day due to degradation.
Leaders in Bushenyi district have asked the central government to stretch its tough hand on continued wetland encroachment in the area.
According to the leaders, the country has over time slid into massive environmental degradation, leading to devastating impacts on weather patterns which affects human lives with planting seasons changing to the worst.
While addressing locals at Ntungamo parish headquarters in Nyakabirizi division on August 29, Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipal Mayor decried the rate at which everything is going to the worst.
His remarks came after the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) Bushenyi area manager, Eng. Sam Kiggundu, said that the water volumes had dropped due to the failure of wetlands to supply water to their dams.
Eng. Kiggundu said the Nyaruzinga wetland, from which NWSC taps water, had run out and moved from producing one million liters of water per day to 900,000 liters per day due to degradation.
Mr. Byaruhanga thus asked Parliament to make sure that the law on environmental protection is strictly enforced to save what is not yet lost.
"Stories about our environment and related developments are saddening. When you move around, swamps are being degraded at a high rate, and when you talk about it, you are looked at as an enemy of progress. Why doesn't the law work? You (MPS) passed the gay bill, and it is going to work. Why does the law on environmental protection remain redundant instead of stopping degraders of the environment?" Mr. Byaruhanga said.
Bushenyi District Woman Member of Parliament, Mrs Annet Katusiime Mugisha, reiterated that environmental degradation and climate change in general are time bombs that need to be controlled before explosion, adding that the causes of degradation must be handled.
"Climate change continues to haunt us with devastating impacts, and one of the reasons is wetland degradation. If the situation doesn't change, maybe our crops won't get rain, we will suffer, and a lot is going to happen. Let us speak loudly against wetland encroachers so that they can stop, and President Museveni has always been clear about this," said Mrs Mugisha.
The leaders had turned up for a ceremony to launch a 2.5-kilometer piped water project, which NWSC is doing in partnership with the Rotary Club of Bushenyi.
The eleven million shillings project is poised to serve the water-stressed areas of Rwakahuka, Rwamukooto, and Nyakahita in Ntungamo ward, Bushenyi-ishaka municipality, according to Ms Agnes Nantale, the President of the Rotary Club of Bushenyi.
