By Ebenezer T. Bifubyeka. NAKED and big-belled children are weeping. Mucus flowing on their wrinkled faces is being fed on by houseflies! They ceaselessly sob but have no tears!
Three children aged between seven and 10 years, stagger towards their impoverished mother. They are craving for food in Runyankore; “Maama, nitwenda kurya,” meaning, “Mother, we want food.”
The yearning, thin and fatigued mother looks at the groaning children with mercy. Tears from her squinted eyes roll down the cheeks. She grabs her dirty, torn wrapper and wipes off her tears. She then wipes the children’s tears and their nauseating mucus.
Principia Mwijukye, 34, can’t do much to save her poverty-stricken family. She curses all the time! “But what has caused famine and suffering in my family?” she wonders. Little does she know that she has dug her own grave! How?
She has harvested all the trees in the homestead. She has no firewood now. Besides, she has exhausted the soil nutrients by over-cultivating her land. Her two-acre piece of land on Kikagati hill along Uganda-Tanzania border is now infertile and dry.
For the last 1.5 decades, Mwijukye has been tilling the same piece of land. She has been planting beans, cassava and millet for domestic consumption. She has not been using terraces and now her garden is bare and dry.
All the soil and its nutrients have been eroded down by floods to River Kagera in the valley. All that she can harvest from the little remaining soils are few and poor yields. She gets firewood from a distance far away because there are no trees nearby.
Mwijukye is not alone in this fix. All her village neighbours (if not entire county) on the bare Kikagati hill are facing similar hardships. They have treated their gardens the way Mwijukye has done! Consequently, they all have no source of clean water in the village!
“That’s our source of water. There is no other water in this locality!” Mzee Sumei Tumwine shocks me by pointing at the ‘dirty’ water flowing in River Kagera. The water in River Kagera is “brown!” Why?
Because all the soils that are always washed away by floods from various gardens up hill; end up in River Kagera! As a result, the water bed of River Kagera is filling up (silting).
According to national environmental management authority (NEMA) western regional coordinator, Jeconious Musingwire, soil erosion has turned River Kagera one of the dirtiest rivers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“As you can see, the ‘brown’ colour of the water in this river (Kagera) is an evidence of ‘silting,’” he explains as he leads 25 environmental journalists selected from various media houses countrywide at the river site.
He says that Makerere University department of mass communication in conjunction with Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) sponsored the tour (held on August 27, 2005) to map out solutions for the ‘dieing’ river.
“Silting in River Kagera leads to ‘sedimentation’ (depositing dregs or soil residues into the water body). This is worsened by poor methods of farming especially bush burning and depletion of the water catchment areas like swamps and trees on the hills,” he says.
“It’s a cultural belief in Uganda that bush burning creates room for fresh pastures. The fresh pastures will grow but with a challenge of losing the nitrogen-fixing bacteria and other soil organisms. This means one will remain with a barren land,” he educates.
Musingwire suggests that bush burning must stop and farmers should always clear the bush by slashing it instead of burning it. He links bush burning with the brown colour of water in River Kagera. “That water is contaminated by the burnt and weakened soils washed down by the floods and landslides from the surrounding bare hills,” he says.
Musingwire, who is also Mbarara district resource officer, emphasises that the lost vegetation cover on the hills would check on the speed of the floods and protect the soils from being eroded away. He adds that even the soil nutrients are always eroded away together with the soils!
He says the tin mines 1970s at Kikagati in Isingiro near Mulongo border post have resumed – this time as a ‘stone quarry’ for the aggregates and hardcore stones (building materials). He says the floods also wash away the opened soils from the stone quarry down to River Kagera.
“The soils are being washed down to River Kagera, which is about 150 metres down the mines. As they open the steep hill, the ground soil becomes weak and prone to landslides. Indeed, some soils have already gone down to the river,” Musingwire says, adding that the stone quarry business here should be banned.
About the bare hills, Musingwire warns people to replant trees because government would recall the ownership of all the land on the ‘bare hills’ in the country within the next five years. He says there are no terraces around the hills and the few that are there are not well protected with trenches to reduce the speed of the floods.
Most of the locals here have vacated their rocky gardens after the soils on the hillsides were washed down to the valleys. They are now cultivating in the wetlands down the hills! Musingwire advises the area residents to stop cultivating in the wetlands and valleys for this may create the worst arid conditions.
He asks the locals to plant trees in the gardens, apply crop rotation, terraces and mulching to check on the floods that erode away the fertile soils through soil erosion.
Women are the key stakeholders in agriculture on which 90% of Ugandan’s economy depends. Women need sensitisation because most of them have limited awareness about conserving fertile soils and the environment in general, Musingwire says.
He asks organisations like NAADS (national agricultural advisory services) and AAMP (area-based agricultural organisation programme) to sensitise the farmers about good methods of farming. He says this would protect the water bodies from silting.
Musingwire asks Uganda government to ask Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to sensitise their farmers about good farming practices especially along the areas where River Kagera passes. River Kagera is one of the major tributaries of Lake Victoria.
Where does River Kagera originate from?
Kagera river system originates right from the headwaters of Mukungwa river tributary in Rwanda at about 300 metres upstream of the Mukugwa River Bridge (reference Moorhouse et. al, 2000).
The Mukungwa River is joined by Nyaborongo River, which merges with a small river leaving Lake Rweru along the Burundi border, to form the Akagera River, also known as River Kagera.
River Kagera joins Uganda at Kikagati along Uganda-Tanzania border. River Kagera flows for 690kms (429 miles) to Lake Victoria. River Kagera is mainly polluted with silt from within the countries where it originates. So it pollutes Lake Victoria too.
The Migration Officer at Murongo border post, Karagwe district in Tanzania, Festo Sanga says the culture of bush burning around the hills in Tanzania has loosened the soils to be easily eroded away by the floods.
Asked about the national environmental bylaws to protect River Kagera and its water catchment areas, Sanga tells The New Vision that, “We have the environmental bylaws here but they are poorly enforced. That’s why River Kagera is that dirty!”
Mbarara district forest officer, Frank Tusiime says the district has a plan for 2002 to 2008 of sensitising farmers, especially the women, about the importance of tree planting but there are ‘no’ funds to implement it!
“Our leaders are aware that that government is supposed to fund such programmes but they think environment is not a priority! This has resulted into the lowering of water levels in rivers within Mbarara and lakes up to Lake Victoria,” he regrets.
Apart from load shedding that has occurred as a result of declining water levels, the prolonged drought seasons in Mbarara are increasing, Tusiime says, adding that this is because most of the wetlands and hills have been stripped bare.
“The replanting of trees is just on paper but not implemented. Even Mr. Kahinda Otafiire (water, lands and environment minister) recently said he would arrest people who strip off the trees on the hills. But has he done anything?” he said.
Asked whether Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP) can also protect River Kagera and its water catchment areas, Uganda’s LVEMP national executive secretary, Dr. Faustino Orach-Meza says there are ‘no’ funds!
“The US$98.4m (about 172.2b) that LVEMP got from Global Environment Facility (GEF) and World Bank to replant trees and protect Lake Victoria and its water catchments in East Africa is finished,” he says.
Orach-Meza adds, the eight-year project ended. He says LVEMP would solicit for more funds and extend its environmental protection awareness services to key water catchment areas upcountry like River Kagera.
Ends.
Word count: 1,453.
Three children aged between seven and 10 years, stagger towards their impoverished mother. They are craving for food in Runyankore; “Maama, nitwenda kurya,” meaning, “Mother, we want food.”
The yearning, thin and fatigued mother looks at the groaning children with mercy. Tears from her squinted eyes roll down the cheeks. She grabs her dirty, torn wrapper and wipes off her tears. She then wipes the children’s tears and their nauseating mucus.
Principia Mwijukye, 34, can’t do much to save her poverty-stricken family. She curses all the time! “But what has caused famine and suffering in my family?” she wonders. Little does she know that she has dug her own grave! How?
She has harvested all the trees in the homestead. She has no firewood now. Besides, she has exhausted the soil nutrients by over-cultivating her land. Her two-acre piece of land on Kikagati hill along Uganda-Tanzania border is now infertile and dry.
For the last 1.5 decades, Mwijukye has been tilling the same piece of land. She has been planting beans, cassava and millet for domestic consumption. She has not been using terraces and now her garden is bare and dry.
All the soil and its nutrients have been eroded down by floods to River Kagera in the valley. All that she can harvest from the little remaining soils are few and poor yields. She gets firewood from a distance far away because there are no trees nearby.
Mwijukye is not alone in this fix. All her village neighbours (if not entire county) on the bare Kikagati hill are facing similar hardships. They have treated their gardens the way Mwijukye has done! Consequently, they all have no source of clean water in the village!
“That’s our source of water. There is no other water in this locality!” Mzee Sumei Tumwine shocks me by pointing at the ‘dirty’ water flowing in River Kagera. The water in River Kagera is “brown!” Why?
Because all the soils that are always washed away by floods from various gardens up hill; end up in River Kagera! As a result, the water bed of River Kagera is filling up (silting).
According to national environmental management authority (NEMA) western regional coordinator, Jeconious Musingwire, soil erosion has turned River Kagera one of the dirtiest rivers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“As you can see, the ‘brown’ colour of the water in this river (Kagera) is an evidence of ‘silting,’” he explains as he leads 25 environmental journalists selected from various media houses countrywide at the river site.
He says that Makerere University department of mass communication in conjunction with Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) sponsored the tour (held on August 27, 2005) to map out solutions for the ‘dieing’ river.
“Silting in River Kagera leads to ‘sedimentation’ (depositing dregs or soil residues into the water body). This is worsened by poor methods of farming especially bush burning and depletion of the water catchment areas like swamps and trees on the hills,” he says.
“It’s a cultural belief in Uganda that bush burning creates room for fresh pastures. The fresh pastures will grow but with a challenge of losing the nitrogen-fixing bacteria and other soil organisms. This means one will remain with a barren land,” he educates.
Musingwire suggests that bush burning must stop and farmers should always clear the bush by slashing it instead of burning it. He links bush burning with the brown colour of water in River Kagera. “That water is contaminated by the burnt and weakened soils washed down by the floods and landslides from the surrounding bare hills,” he says.
Musingwire, who is also Mbarara district resource officer, emphasises that the lost vegetation cover on the hills would check on the speed of the floods and protect the soils from being eroded away. He adds that even the soil nutrients are always eroded away together with the soils!
He says the tin mines 1970s at Kikagati in Isingiro near Mulongo border post have resumed – this time as a ‘stone quarry’ for the aggregates and hardcore stones (building materials). He says the floods also wash away the opened soils from the stone quarry down to River Kagera.
“The soils are being washed down to River Kagera, which is about 150 metres down the mines. As they open the steep hill, the ground soil becomes weak and prone to landslides. Indeed, some soils have already gone down to the river,” Musingwire says, adding that the stone quarry business here should be banned.
About the bare hills, Musingwire warns people to replant trees because government would recall the ownership of all the land on the ‘bare hills’ in the country within the next five years. He says there are no terraces around the hills and the few that are there are not well protected with trenches to reduce the speed of the floods.
Most of the locals here have vacated their rocky gardens after the soils on the hillsides were washed down to the valleys. They are now cultivating in the wetlands down the hills! Musingwire advises the area residents to stop cultivating in the wetlands and valleys for this may create the worst arid conditions.
He asks the locals to plant trees in the gardens, apply crop rotation, terraces and mulching to check on the floods that erode away the fertile soils through soil erosion.
Women are the key stakeholders in agriculture on which 90% of Ugandan’s economy depends. Women need sensitisation because most of them have limited awareness about conserving fertile soils and the environment in general, Musingwire says.
He asks organisations like NAADS (national agricultural advisory services) and AAMP (area-based agricultural organisation programme) to sensitise the farmers about good methods of farming. He says this would protect the water bodies from silting.
Musingwire asks Uganda government to ask Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to sensitise their farmers about good farming practices especially along the areas where River Kagera passes. River Kagera is one of the major tributaries of Lake Victoria.
Where does River Kagera originate from?
Kagera river system originates right from the headwaters of Mukungwa river tributary in Rwanda at about 300 metres upstream of the Mukugwa River Bridge (reference Moorhouse et. al, 2000).
The Mukungwa River is joined by Nyaborongo River, which merges with a small river leaving Lake Rweru along the Burundi border, to form the Akagera River, also known as River Kagera.
River Kagera joins Uganda at Kikagati along Uganda-Tanzania border. River Kagera flows for 690kms (429 miles) to Lake Victoria. River Kagera is mainly polluted with silt from within the countries where it originates. So it pollutes Lake Victoria too.
The Migration Officer at Murongo border post, Karagwe district in Tanzania, Festo Sanga says the culture of bush burning around the hills in Tanzania has loosened the soils to be easily eroded away by the floods.
Asked about the national environmental bylaws to protect River Kagera and its water catchment areas, Sanga tells The New Vision that, “We have the environmental bylaws here but they are poorly enforced. That’s why River Kagera is that dirty!”
Mbarara district forest officer, Frank Tusiime says the district has a plan for 2002 to 2008 of sensitising farmers, especially the women, about the importance of tree planting but there are ‘no’ funds to implement it!
“Our leaders are aware that that government is supposed to fund such programmes but they think environment is not a priority! This has resulted into the lowering of water levels in rivers within Mbarara and lakes up to Lake Victoria,” he regrets.
Apart from load shedding that has occurred as a result of declining water levels, the prolonged drought seasons in Mbarara are increasing, Tusiime says, adding that this is because most of the wetlands and hills have been stripped bare.
“The replanting of trees is just on paper but not implemented. Even Mr. Kahinda Otafiire (water, lands and environment minister) recently said he would arrest people who strip off the trees on the hills. But has he done anything?” he said.
Asked whether Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP) can also protect River Kagera and its water catchment areas, Uganda’s LVEMP national executive secretary, Dr. Faustino Orach-Meza says there are ‘no’ funds!
“The US$98.4m (about 172.2b) that LVEMP got from Global Environment Facility (GEF) and World Bank to replant trees and protect Lake Victoria and its water catchments in East Africa is finished,” he says.
Orach-Meza adds, the eight-year project ended. He says LVEMP would solicit for more funds and extend its environmental protection awareness services to key water catchment areas upcountry like River Kagera.
Ends.
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