Wetland rescued from 40 years of degradation
By Chris Mugasha
After 40 years undergoing total degradation, a wetland in Mitooma district-Uganda has now got a relief.
The locals who have been at the helm of tormenting it for the above period recently teamed up with the district authorities and the ministry of water and environment to restore about 233hectares of this wetland they had degraded.
Armed with hoes, pangas, spades……..the locals now joined the exercise of making sure that the trenches which they had opened up in Nyamuhizi-Kagogo wetland system to make it dry are backfilled.
It should be noted that it is the same locals who had degraded the wetland but along the way they developed some misunderstandings and as a result the deal to turn it into a grazing farm land ended from there.
The Mitooma district Natural resources officer Naboth Baguma said the degradation activities on the affected wetland started in 1980s when the church had assumed ownership and decided to allocate portions to crop cultivators. People responded and the whole system was converted into farmland.
Forty years down the road, the government/district has gained ownership of this natural resource after several battles with the locals.
The district acting chairman Silvester Tumukurate said efforts to evict the encroachers had been hampered by resistance which was being facilitated by few selfish individuals and mixing politics in the matter.
“The success of this case is a signal to many people who have encroached on a number of wetlands in the district,” he threatened.
Lucy Lyango an official from the Ministry of water and environment thanked the locals for participating in the restoration of the wetland voluntarily. The restoration of Nyamuhizi-Kagogo wetland is part of a eight year project funded by the World Bank aiming at restoration of wetland integrity and improvement of lives for some vulnerable people who are dependent on subsistence agriculture and wetlands for their livelihoods. End
Locals at the launch of the restoration. Ministry and district officials launching the restoration of the wetland.
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