Kampala — A high deforestation rate leaves the soils exposed, increasing the population's vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change like landslides, Wangari Maathai, an environment activist and nobel Prize winner, has said.

Addressing the 15th African water and sanitation congress at Speke Resort Munyonyo on Tuesday, Maathai stressed that governments must curb deforestation.

"One of the destructive initiatives introduced into the East African region during the colonial era is the clearing of indigenous forests and replacing them with commercial plantations of exotic species," she said.

Sacrificing the welfare of future generations to please big business interests is short-term, Maathai added.

Life, she stressed, can go on without sugar, paper and furniture, but people will die if the ecosystem is tampered with.