Arnold K. Kagoro
24 August 2005
opinion
The media reports that Lake Victoria is increasingly getting polluted by all sorts of waste which expose the population to enormous health risks besides the high water treatment costs which the NWSC incurs and transfers to its consumers through exorbitant water bills.
KCC, Ministry of Water and the World Bank have been blamed for not addressing this situation. A week or so ago, sections of the press also quoted reports by researchers who have predicted that at the present rate of pollution, Lake Victoria is on its death bed. Considering its economic, environmental, touristic, aesthetic, health and other values, the demise of L. Victoria will be a disaster for the people of Uganda and in my opinion no government worth the name should allow this to happen.
I have always wondered why government creates institutions to be in charge of things but subsequently omits or fails to ensure that these institutions operate properly. For instance, the National Environment Act of 1995 establishes NEMA as the principal agency responsible for environmental management in Uganda. NEMA therefore is supposed to be the one-stop centre of responsibility for all matters of environmental management.
Even where certain specific environmental functions are performed by lead agencies, NEMA is enjoined as the ultimate authority on matters of environment, to ensure that such lead agencies do their part effectively and efficiently. Failure to ensure this is simply failure to do its work and this is exactly what is happening now.
Yet, amidst this unabated environmental pollution and degradation, it is a well known fact that NEMA is operating under a project funded by a World Bank loan to the Government of Uganda. This implies that the Ugandan tax payers will have to service a loan from which they have reaped no benefit except providing plush air conditioned offices, sleek Land cruisers and hefty packages for NEMA staff to enjoy themselves for as long as the project lasts. Surely, why must the government and the people of Uganda let this happen ?
Operational lethargy
The isolated enforcement operations conducted by NEMA, like the eviction of poor peasants from wetlands upcountry may be correct but remote and peripheral in the present circumstances where a resource so dear like L.Victoria is facing eminent death and not much is done.
The selective demolition of houses like Nyakana's, was by all standards no work done because the foundation and slab which remained intact in the wetland continue to compromise the ecological functions of the wetland the same way it would do even if the house still stood. In fact the costs incurred in this demolition are in effect a financial loss to the government.
The eminent danger facing our environment therefore, cannot be addressed without addressing the functioning of the government agency charged with the overall responsibility of environmental management - NEMA.
For instance, some sections of the press recently reported that three top managers had resigned over top management mismanagement. Mind you this happens while staff in this organisation are paid more than thrice what their counterparts in the rest of the Public Sector earn, and poor pay cannot be cited as a major reason for such exodus of manpower.
It is therefore evident that an independent and thorough organisational assessment is necessary to salvage this institution in order to salvage our environment.
Probably, it is wrong to assume that technical qualifications in environmental management alone are enough for a person to manage such an entity efficiently. The task of heading such an entity outspans mere knowledge of environment and requires skill and competence in leadership, strategic management, organisational development, motivation and human resource management. Whatever the case, NEMA is suffering from a malady which cannot be wished away.
Instead of burying their heads in the sand, the concerned authorities should see beyond what they are simply told, and find out what is exactly wrong before it is not yet too late.
The writer is an environmental activist
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