Rotary moves to restore forest cover on lakeshores, riverbanks

With Uganda experiencing significant impacts of climate change including changing weather patterns, drop in water levels, and increased frequency of extreme weather events such as floods and drought, this is potentially posing one of the greatest challenges for the country to realise her full development potential.

As such, different stakeholders are joining hands to mitigate these climate change effects. The Rotary Club of Kampala Central, under District 9231, has launched a tree-planting project to restore and protect the depleted forest cover along the shores of Victoria and Kyoga lakes, and River Nile banks. The shores and banks have also over the years been affected by human activities such as pollution from industrial waste.

Mr David Nsubuga, the director of the Promote Uganda Ltd, who is leading the project, said Rotary International has injected $18 million dollars (about Shs67 billion) in the project to protect the water resources and environment.

“We are teaming up with the Ministry of Water and Environment and companies such as Nile Breweries Ltd, Kakira Sugar Ltd and many others to make this project a success,” he said in an interview on Saturday.

He added that the project has begun in Uganda before heading to other countries that share Lake Victoria and River Nile where human activities have affected both water bodies.

The Jinja City deputy mayor, Ms Fazira Kauma, said they have a duty to support all the efforts aimed in conserving the Nile Basin and Lake Victoria.

“There is no other physical feature that has made Uganda known globally other than the River Nile. It is our heart and we need to protect it jealousy if we still want life,” she said.

However, even with these efforts, community involvement is vital.

Mr Yasin Ntembe, the director of Mission Green in the Rotary Club of Jinja, said their previous experience has shown that many trees wither a few weeks after being planted because the local communities are not fully involved.

 “Our main challenge as Rotary is lack of land in the project of tree planting. We are now changing the system by involving other partners such as community members and companies to ensure that these trees grow and be looked after to serve the purpose,” Mr Ntembe said.

Mr Ernest Nabihamba, the Jinja City natural resources officer, said there are about 75 factories in Jinja City of which 20 discharge industrial waste directly into Lake Victoria and River Nile due to poor waste treatment facilities.

River Nile is the world’s longest river while Lake Victoria is the largest freshwater lake in Africa and chief reservoir of the former. Millions of people in Uganda and in other countries depend on both water bodies for their livelihood.

However, due to increasing demand for land, encroachers started claiming plots of land on both the lake shores and river banks. Some have encroached on nature conservation zones by setting up hotels and gardens.

The encroachment on the lake shores and river banks has in the past sparked outrage among conservationists and raised fears that such human activity could degrade the environment.