Florence Ekwau
27 August 2008
opinion
Kampala — There has been persistent public outrage about the rate at which Uganda's environment is being abused, and the seeming reluctance of the authorities to check the practice.
Reported incidences of day light insult to the environment (wetland, forests, lakes and rivers) have not received the attention they deserved.
Farmers and plantation owners have encroached on our forestlands with dare-devil swiftness, never mind that forests are superb carbon sinkers and habitats to countless numbers of wildlife species.
Property developers have reclaimed wetlands with impunity; and factories release their industrial effluent into our waters with reckless abandon!
As they say; the deaf can hear all these; the blind can see what is happening; and the dumb can tell all about the environmental degradation in Uganda - except the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).
NEMA is a government body charged with the responsibility to monitor, supervise and regulate all activities pertaining to the environment. It is also mandated to enforce and ensure adherence to environmental regulations and standards (Environment Act, Cap 153, Section 7)
NEMA, on its part, has apparently chosen to be sightless - can neither see, hear nor sense what is happening to its charge! The Wetland Management Department of NEMA is seemingly on sick leave.
How else would one explain the rampant settlements on wetland in Bwaise-Kalerwe on Gayaza Road, Lufuka along Entebbe Road, Kinawataka, Namuwongo, Ntinda, and a host of other places around Kampala and the surrounding districts?
There are more dry lands than wetlands! And what is NEMA doing?
Lufuka hit her peak with floods shortly before CHOGM which cut off Entebbe Road for days. A big chunk of that wetland is still being imperiled. Bwaise-Kalerwe is famed for the sailable waters during heavy rains.
And just pass via Kinawataka from or to Kireka. You may be honoured to let go of the food you ate! Reason?
The reach-deep stench that permeates the whole environment along that stretch! During rainy seasons, water seeps out of the lower Speke Resort Munyonyo lawns. And further reclamation is going on there even right now!
The wetland behind Crest Foam Industries in Ntinda is almost blocked by reclaimers; and the stretch of the wetland along Naguru is practically gone. Some big shots have degraded the wetland just opposite Kampala Parents' School.
One is being fenced off even. Others have habitable houses already!
Due to our apparent lack of commitment to the wellbeing of the environment, the World Bank has withdrawn funding to some of our environmental activities.
The receding levels of water on Lake Victoria; the flooding in Kampala city and the depletion of our ecosystem are some of the consequences of NEMA's lackluster attitude towards environmental protection.
The adversely skewed environment burden is sitting heavy on the tax-payers. Should tax-payers keep funding this NEMA thing? Whatever it is doing is not enough; no discernable results.
What is obvious is that NEMA operatives are apparently teeming with the insatiable insects of greed which slant them to bend rules in favour of "our daily bread".
There are reports of approval of dubious Environment Impact Assessment reports. Soil and murram are deposited in wetlands mainly at night. And construction is day-light activity.
NEMA should establish an active cash-bag to reward whistle-blowers who are treated with utmost confidentiality. Dispatch scouts and other operatives to the reported sites to apprehend the culprits. Impound trucks and arrest their drivers.
These are very good leads to the chief degraders for purposes of prosecution.
The selected application of environmental laws has scorched speculation that some top NEMA officials collude with wetland degraders to bleed Ugandans of environmental potentials which we could all enjoy.
It is a de facto modern-day apartheid where some people get their property demolished, whereas others go scot-free, yet they are the worst depressants of our environment!
The environment could be Uganda's cash cow, but only if NEMA ceases to perpetuate that vice of colluding with environment menaces like farmers, constructors and industrialists.
If NEMA finds it untenable to involve the communities around wetlands to check environmental abuse; if they find it hard to deploy their operatives to apprehend these criminals; and if pressures of their offices are unbearable, I don't see why one can't let go of the office.
Otherwise, why should millions be sunk on presumed prevention of wetlands abuse, a duty NEMA seems not to be that keen about?
Why should public resources be dedicated to NEMA in the budget, a demand that sears the alphabet of public disdain towards the environment body?
Where is the confluence of beneficial prerogative to the tax-payers here? You see, the death of a man begins as an appetite.
The writer is the MP for Kaberamaido
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