Nema hampers environmental restoration in Wakiso, leaders say

Leaders in Wakiso district have accused the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) of frustrating their efforts to restore the environment.

However, Nema has refuted the allegations, saying that while they cannot reach every corner of the country, local authorities can.

Mr Alfred Malinga, Wakiso District Chief Administrative Officer, said Nema sometimes ignores assessments carried out by district environmental staff.

“When Nema sends environmental impact assessments to our staff in the district for review, sometimes when they say no, Nema proceeds to issue permits to investors and developers who want to occupy wetlands,” Malinga said during an Environment and Natural Resources Action Planning meeting in the Nansana Municipality on Wednesday.

He said this lack of environmental awareness will likely undermine any efforts aimed at restoring wetlands.

“My challenge is why they keep pointing fingers at us, even though they have the ultimate power over wetlands and other ecosystems. This will never help the country restore the fragile degraded ecosystems,” he added.

Mr Malinga cited the degradation of the shores of Lake Victoria at Kaazi in Busabala, which the district environmental team stopped but Nema went ahead and sanctioned it.

“A person applied for a license to use that area and we said no, but the extent of the degradation is now worrying because they have already filled it,” he said.

Mr Esau Mpoza, Wakiso District Environmental Officer, said the district cannot handle restoration exercises alone because it lacks an enforcement team.

“We don’t have an environmental police force. Our job is to issue alerts and ask for help,” he said.

However, Mr Francis Ogwal, a senior manager at Nema, said Nema cannot reach every corner of the country, but local authorities can.

“The National Environment Act 2019 is very clear in that it outlines the responsibility of each lead agency and also empowers local governments to manage wetlands in their areas of jurisdiction,” Ogwal said.

Over the past decade, authorities have been evicting squatters from several wetlands, but some defiant squatters continue to rebuild new homes and makeshift structures in those areas.

At the end of May, Nema began new forced evictions in the Lubigi wetland, where hundreds of people have seen their homes demolished and many are now sleeping in the cold.

Section 36 of the National Environment Act 2019 provides for the protection of wetlands and prohibits reclamation and construction of illegal structures and empowers authorities to demolish any structure that is fixed in, on, under or above any wetland.

The Act also empowers districts to manage wetlands within their jurisdictions and ensure that their boundaries are demarcated so that even when water levels and wetland vegetation recede, communities are clear about where the boundaries are.