We must all protect the environment

In Jinja City a businessman, Zziwa Mayanja, is in trouble for felling two mvule trees. Why? The community stood up to him and halted his plans to fell eight trees planted along the banks of River Nile and its surrounding areas by the late colonial chief, Semei Kakungulu, in the early 1920s.

Mayanja, like many others before, would have succeeded had the community not made some “noise” both on social media and to the local authorities. In fact, Mayanja, according to media reports, stemmed off the initial protests from a few members of the community before he was later overwhelmed.

A similar incident recently played out near Entebbe Municipality where Rajiv Ruparelia, the son of businessman Sudhir Ruparelia, is constructing a property at the former Ssese Gateway beach.  Under guard of the police and private security, the duo’s company had since November 2021 ferried stones and rocky soil into Lake Victoria shores to extend their size of land available for their project. It was the concerned members of the community that moved the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) and other enforcement agencies to halt the exercise.

Lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi has since sued them for undertaking activities in the protected zones along lake shores contrary to Section 53(6-7) of the National Environment Act, 2019.

Again, it followed public outcry for Nema to suspended activities at the Southern Range Nyanza Limited, also known as Nytil, for allegedly discharging hazardous water waste into River Nile. A concerned member of the public took photos of the activity prompting immediate action.

We cite the above three examples out of the many recent ones because they illustrate what we can achieve when we raise our voices against ills in society that affect us collectively, in this case the environment.
It is very easy, like has happened over the years, to blame agencies like NEMA for failing to act on their mandate. To blame the rapid disappearance of our wetlands on government ineptitude and corruption. To blame civil society organisations like NGOs for not doing enough but the same fingers we use to point at them can be used to point at the communities where these things are happening.

As seen from the above examples and in the past, authorities won’t move unless the population moves them into action.  This is because corruption, incompetence, negligence and other vices play a central role in the failure to protect our environment especially natural resources like forests, wetlands. 

We urge people in different communities across the country to help and in some cases force agencies like NEMA, to bring court challenges, and to protest in defense of the environment.  Those destroying it are not sleeping. We shouldn’t

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