Criminalise truckers filling up wetlands

It  took public outcry for the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) to come out and explain that it had approved yet another flagrant encroachment on the shores of Lake Victoria. From Munyonyo, huge trucks were captured on video clips pouring heap after heap of soil on the lake shores. The clip was widely shared on social media.

Nema, the supposed environment watchdog that even real-life dogs have forgotten when they last heard it bark, has said it allowed the shores to be raised by a tycoon to stop flooding. It would have been interesting for Nema to explain why the hotel is in the location in the first place but at a time wetlands have disappeared in the cities and towns, at a time Bungoma Forest is being wantonly encroached on, such queries would be no better than sky-gazing with a blindfold on.

The country is at a precarious bend where some people are untouchable. Investors with no regard for sustainable environment management practices who cannot look beyond the fat cigars sticking from their mouth and wine glasses in their hands have done as they please so many times that only few still care.

But Ugandans must never lose hope. There are other ways this country can raise a few speed bumps on the highway of environmental destruction. High among them is a law that would make it criminal for truckers to pour soil in protected areas such as wetlands and lakeshores/river banks, be involved in ferrying wood felled from forests or even the rampant charcoal business.
Because the rich have learnt to circumvent the law, addressing the challenge by having a law that punishes those they contract to engage in their evils against the environment would help in some way.

Truckers who dump soil in wetlands, for instance, should be made to carry their cross. Only when they are liable parties to such activities would they fear or refuse to partake in them. And while at it, local leaders need to be separately empowered to take action. The law should consider empowering community leaders to arrest and impound trucks of drivers engaged in activities that destroy the environment.

It is about time Ugandans admitted that Nema cannot be relied on to effectively serve as a watchdog. If Nema still had a tail to wag, it would, at the very least, have publicised the activities in Munyonyo long before it had started to ensure there is transparent public engagement – and its attendant goodwill.

Parliament needs to look into laws that will widen the mandate of environmental protection. The day communities start detaining errant truckers will be the dawn of real environmental protection. But that day will not fall from the sky. The country must earn it.