The opposition Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has challenged government to heighten the fight against environmental degradation.
As government, through Parliament made moves of restoring the degrading Lwera Swamps on Masala Road, UPC said this good move should be extended to the rest of the country.
“Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) would like to applaud the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources for its intervention to save Lwera swamp lands along Kampala-Masaka road which saw three companies that have been engaged in sand mining suspended with immediate effect,” Sharon Oyat Arach, the UPC Spokesperson told reporters on Wednesday.
The Parliamentary move, she said should be an eye-opener for the government and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) that all is not going on well with our environment and it’s necessary to protect it.
“As a country, we have a big challenge to preserve the environment at a time when climate change issues are threatening the entire globe. Lwera swamp lands are part of the Lake Victoria-Nile basin and this basin extends into the Great Lakes Region,” she said
“Anything that destroys or degrades Lwera swamp lands affects a greater ecosystem and the consequences are very difficult to handle,” she added
UPC, she said has been at the forefront of calling upon government to restore water catchment areas across the country to minimise on the effects of climate change due to manmade activities.
“For instance; swamp lands like Lwera are huge reservoirs of water that directly pours into Lake Victoria and have a moderating influence on weather and climate which contributes to rainfall thus leading to agricultural activities. Swamps are a home for various types of fish and fish is a key source of proteins,” .
“They are a home for various types of herbs, which are of great medicinal value and helping to cure a lot of different types of ailments,”
She noted that these places are a home for various types of animals, birds and insects, and a mainstay of handcraft industry, especially the manufacture of mats and baskets. So the local economy depends heavily on swamp lands.
“Any sand mining and rice growing that is not well thought of in such wetlands certainly creates more and more challenges which are very difficult to deal with,”
Environmental damage, she noted “affects our food security, local economies and livelihoods of various families,”
“Our flora and fauna gets extinct from the environment and this creates more Eco- logistical disasters. UPC appreciates fully the initiative taken by the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural resources,”
