UGANDA: A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER LOOMING

The most beautiful place in Uganda I have been to is the Kyenjojo, Fort Portal, and the Rwenzori Areas. The West Nile region too is Romantically beautiful. I also travelled to a place in Sezibwa area that had one of the most amazing forest drives I have had in a long time; the air too was so fresh that I wished I could stay. Someone coined the phrase "Uganda: Gifted by nature!" and they surely did not lie. I have been to a few African countries and struggle to find a country that is physically and climatically as beautiful as Uganda. The land is also endowed with all forms of picturesque beauty that if one wanted a fair taste of Great Africa they had better come to Uganda. No wonder it is called “The Pearl of Africa.”

Also, almost all foods and fruits grow here. Being raised here I took it for granted that variety of foods is something all peoples of the world are blessed with; it took me to travel not so far from Uganda as a grown-up man to understand that I was terribly wrong! But all this could most likely be grabbed away from us, if we are not careful to stop the growing trend, in not so a long time from now!

If you have not noticed, the rainfall patterns have been pretty unpredictable. That can be painful for farmers who can no longer reliably pinpoint seasons. The planting seasons have been shifting indeterminately and harvesting seasons too have been impacted leading in some cases to economic losses. Some friends and I tried to dig a well in Nalutuntu Sub-county in Mubende 4 years ago; the experienced diggers had to stop when they hit 150feet underground due to lack of oxygen, but still no water! We abandoned that project and thought we needed to try technology. The well digger truck we hired picked its spot where they said they were sure of water; two tries yielded nothing, and off they went with millions of monies already paid to them and no results on water! Eventually we were told by the locals that no one has been successful in that venture in this area so far (atleast by then). We resorted to laying pipes and pumping water from the only available private dam 1Km away nearby our project.

One does not have to look far to see things happening around us that leave true environmentalists shivering with fear. What is scary is that Uganda’s Forest Cover is still significantly receding more than it is being replenished to the tune of 100Ha/Yr compared to 150Ha/10Yrs replenishment (Ref. New Vision 17th Oct. 2017). Some investors have tried to fight back by growing trees and forests however despite all these initiatives, Uganda’s forests are faced with continuously worsening trends through encroachment, deforestation and forest degradation through conversion of forest land to other land uses. These include agriculture, urbanization and rampant felling of trees for timber, firewood and charcoal burning on private and government land, rampant fires and livestock damage on forest plantations. More specifically, one report states that the country lost on average 122,000 ha/year of forest every year from 1990-2015. The greatest loss in the country is estimated at 250,000 ha of forests annually according to NFA estimates for the period 2005-2010. On the other hand, on average, only about 7,000 hectares of planted forests are established on a yearly basis in the last 15 years. (Ref. MINISRTY OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENT STATE OF UGANDA’S FORESTRY 2015 THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA MINISRTY OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENT STATE OF UGANDA’S FORESTRY 2016). Clearly, we are not doing very well. My primary school science tells me the rainfall cycle depends on both trees and water bodies.

Now turning to the latter, water bodies! We have been told by geographers that East Africa has the second biggest freshwater lake in the world, the Lake Victoria. There is many other smaller freshwater lakes in Uganda through out the land. A close look at it though reveals that all these water bodies are interlinked somehow; Victoria, kyoga, Edward, Nile valley, etc. This means that when one chocks others will eventually follow suit. However, Lake Victoria is under threat already, under assault from the activity around it. I have watched with great horror over the last 30 years as the swamps around Lake Victoria have swiftly disappeared making way to various economic activities and developments.

A close look also reveals that settlements around the lake have aggressively take over and now activities are happening with reckless abandon right up to the lake side; the result - silting of the lake. Plastics clog the channels and eventually end up in the lake, human wastewater, herbicide, and chemicals infested runoff water from Flower farms on lake shores, cutting of vegetation on the shorelines and so much more. Lately my water bill has gone up into the uncomfortable zone even when the consumption has not and its no wonder why.

The rate and trend of destruction and abuse of these forests and water bodies is now imposing an ever-increasing risk on us all; so this is no longer a concern for just the environmentalists but for all Ugandans. Slow but sure desertification and related Land pressure as the population grows, which means that food and water pressure increases and eventually with-it competition for the same. To put it plainly, all this is a budding serious national crisis and security issue. For Uganda right now the environment in my view is the most critical national priority which if we do not radically pay attention to will speak a language of its own, screaming back at us in ways that we shall not be able to deal with. People must immediately stop the indiscriminate cutting down of trees and as well we must engage in an aggressive drive to replant forests in order to increase our carbon footprint. National Forest reserves must be restored, and older species replanted too together with the fast growing one's.

The lake shores must be recovered back from private ownership and protective vegetation restored and as well actions to desilt the lakes taken. The swamps, all of which play a critical filtering role must be restored and all encroachment pushed back to old boundaries. We must aggressively enforce environmental laws and criminalize environmental abuse and as well push environmental restoration to the homestead level. Lastly, we must employ valley Dams and water harvesting plus irrigation schemes in order to utilize to the maximum the rainfall we are still so blessed to receive as a nation.

Unless we take to these aggressive paranoid measures and more, environmental degradation in Uganda is a clear and present danger which if not addressed immediately, will force upon us the abundant harvest that yields from this kind of abuse. And nothing will stop the immense collateral damage that shall arise from this; and no one shall be spared.

I kid you not!