By Ebenezer T. BifubyekaMbarara, Uganda.
ONLY when people are informed will they be aware, only when they are aware will they take action, and only when they take action will species and the environment be saved, Sir Ndyakira Amooti believed.
As we celebrate World Wetlands Day today (February 2), we should credit Ndyakira’s spirited effort he made in 1997, two years before he succumbed to Leukemia (cancer of the blood or bone marrow).
Late Ndyakira lifted his intellectual journalist gadgets and fought against spraying Lake Victoria in an attempt to get rid of the water hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes). His target was to coax government to carry out an environmental impact assessment.
Unfortunately, the government abandoned his brilliant idea and the beetles (Neochetina weevils) were stocked in the lake to eat up the water hyacinth. Did the beetles eat it up? Has the water hyacinth disappeared? Anyway, what lesson do we learn from that?
In a similar intervention without an environmental impact assessment, livestock farmers at Kanyaryeru, Nyabushozi county, Kiruhura district in western Uganda have dehydrated their water bodies by putting water hyacinth in the dams to solve the water crisis.
They applied their ‘science’ of planting water hyacinth on top of water bodies as a measure to protect the water from drying up hence causing total drying up of the water!
When cattle keepers in Kanyaryeru sub-county saw water drying up in Kanyaryeru dam due to evaporation, they introduced water hyacinth to the dam as a remedial measure to curb evaporation of water.
Traditionally, farmers used water lilies (locally known as ‘amarebe’) to preserve their wells and dams. So they thought the new invasive weed (water hyacinth) would serve as the best alternative since it also grows floating on water like the water lilies.
Basing on that belief, the farmers put the water hyacinth in Kanyaryeru dam at Kanyaryeru parish, 23km on Mbarara-Masaka highway. Hardly did they know that the water hyacinth would multiply quickly and consume all the precious water!
The Kanyaryeru dam was dung in 1999 by government under Valley dams for provision of livestock water project implemented by a Germany firm, GTZ. The project was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with the ministry of agriculture under the livestock services project.
The cost of Kanyaryeru dam was about sh85m; Rwamuranda dam cost about sh150m. Other dams that include Akaku, Omukashenshero, Kibega and Akayanja cost between sh60m to sh75m, according to Dr. James Kabaterana, who was the Water Resources Engineer for the Greater Mbarara when the dams were dug.
Kanyaryeru dam dried up two years after it had filled up; and it was the only source of water in the arid area. The Omukasheshero dam, which is the only alternative seven miles away, is also drying up due to infestation of the water hyacinth!
Even the dam at Kibega trading centre, Sanga sub-county in Nyabushozi, which belongs to the former Mbarara municipality mayor, Roberts Rutehenda also dried up over the infestation of the water hyacinth. Only the water hyacinth remains in the dry dams.
The national environmental management authority’s western regional environment public awareness officer, Jeconious Musingwire says, “Farmers infested the water bodies with the water hyacinth - thinking it would work as the water lilies that are a natural blanket for protecting water from evaporating (everpotranspiration).”
He says the farmers’ false belief prompted them to pick the hyacinth from River Rwizi and put it in all water bodies in Kanyaryeru. “When the cow dug was eroded by floods into the dams, it increased nutrients in the water (eurtrophication) and water hyacinth also increased thus clogging the dams,” he explains.
The water lilies, he adds, are getting scarce and endangered due to the drying up of swamps, water bodies and the low multiplication of water in the remaining water bodies.
He says the water hyacinth that farmers substituted with water lilies has increased and covered all water bodies in the Ankole cattle corridor! “The dams have turned out to be the breeding grounds for water hyacinth for further infestation in other water bodies!”
Musingwire says that how are residents around Kanyaryeru dam going to be safeguarded from hand-picking the beautiful-flowered and ornamental water hyacinth from the infested and non-fenced dams and take it to other areas?
John Katera, a 38-year-old keeper of 30 cows in the area, says the dams are far apart and they need at least three dams in each parish. He says that apart from the water crisis, the grasses have dried up and soon the cattle will start dieing of starvation.
“Cows scramble for the few remaining green grasses around the dry dams and on roadsides. This morning, one cow was slaughtered after it was knocked dead as it fed on the green grasses on the roadside! Many more cows have been knocked dead,” he says.
Elnest Rushaija, 50, a farmer in the area, says that if it doesn’t rain in the next four months, the Omukashesheru dam will also dry up completely and farmers would only be left with an alternative of River Rwizi, which is gazzated in Lake Mburo national park!
Asked for a comment, the chairperson for Kiruhura district, Philip Kamugungunu says that in time of crisis, cattle keepers are allowed to water their cattle at River Rwizi in Lake Mburo National Park.
About the dry Kanyaryeru dam, Kamugungunu says it’s God’s plan to fill the dam with rainwater. “If it rains, we get water, if it doesn’t, we wait. But the dam was strategically dug where it is - to collect water since it is on the water way,” he said.
On centrally, the NEMA official, Jeconious Musingwire attributes the drying up of the same Kanyaryeru dam to poor location with no environmental impact assessment carried out, lack of water catchments and drainage patterns.
“Kanyaryeru dam had to dry up. There was no environmental intervention before locating it where it is. There are no water catchments around or drainage patterns. The dam only relied on insufficient raindrop offs. And the infestation of water hyacinth worsened the situation,” he says.
However, the success of an anti-water hyacinth pilot breeding ground for beetles beside Kanyaryeru dam, Nyabushozi in Kiruhura district is in balance as its surrounding water source to recharge it has dried up!
“How would the multiplication of the beetle breeding project be sustainable in the area when Kanyaryeru valley dam, which is the source of water for recharging the project’s pond, has dried up?” Musingwire says.
Musingwire suggests that there is need to monitor whether the beetles (Neochetina weevils) are active and multiplying or not.
The New Vision visited the two beetle-breeding ponds at Kanyaryeru on Thursday. The ponds are covered with green and water-logged and healthy-looking water hyacinth. The beetles are in there yet they (beetles) are bred purposely to feed on the water hyacinth!
The beetle-breeding pond was established in the area in 2004 by the ‘Removing barriers to invasive plant management in Africa project.’ The project is funded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), National agricultural research organisation (NARO), GEF (Global environmental facility) and Iinternational union for conservation of natural resources (IUCN).
However, much as it is the government’s role to protect and replenish the environment, am convinced that it’s also the role of all of us – to conserve the environment for we are its beneficiaries as well as the victims of harsh consequences of degradation.
· Ends.
Word count: 1,230.
As we celebrate World Wetlands Day today (February 2), we should credit Ndyakira’s spirited effort he made in 1997, two years before he succumbed to Leukemia (cancer of the blood or bone marrow).
Late Ndyakira lifted his intellectual journalist gadgets and fought against spraying Lake Victoria in an attempt to get rid of the water hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes). His target was to coax government to carry out an environmental impact assessment.
Unfortunately, the government abandoned his brilliant idea and the beetles (Neochetina weevils) were stocked in the lake to eat up the water hyacinth. Did the beetles eat it up? Has the water hyacinth disappeared? Anyway, what lesson do we learn from that?
In a similar intervention without an environmental impact assessment, livestock farmers at Kanyaryeru, Nyabushozi county, Kiruhura district in western Uganda have dehydrated their water bodies by putting water hyacinth in the dams to solve the water crisis.
They applied their ‘science’ of planting water hyacinth on top of water bodies as a measure to protect the water from drying up hence causing total drying up of the water!
When cattle keepers in Kanyaryeru sub-county saw water drying up in Kanyaryeru dam due to evaporation, they introduced water hyacinth to the dam as a remedial measure to curb evaporation of water.
Traditionally, farmers used water lilies (locally known as ‘amarebe’) to preserve their wells and dams. So they thought the new invasive weed (water hyacinth) would serve as the best alternative since it also grows floating on water like the water lilies.
Basing on that belief, the farmers put the water hyacinth in Kanyaryeru dam at Kanyaryeru parish, 23km on Mbarara-Masaka highway. Hardly did they know that the water hyacinth would multiply quickly and consume all the precious water!
The Kanyaryeru dam was dung in 1999 by government under Valley dams for provision of livestock water project implemented by a Germany firm, GTZ. The project was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with the ministry of agriculture under the livestock services project.
The cost of Kanyaryeru dam was about sh85m; Rwamuranda dam cost about sh150m. Other dams that include Akaku, Omukashenshero, Kibega and Akayanja cost between sh60m to sh75m, according to Dr. James Kabaterana, who was the Water Resources Engineer for the Greater Mbarara when the dams were dug.
Kanyaryeru dam dried up two years after it had filled up; and it was the only source of water in the arid area. The Omukasheshero dam, which is the only alternative seven miles away, is also drying up due to infestation of the water hyacinth!
Even the dam at Kibega trading centre, Sanga sub-county in Nyabushozi, which belongs to the former Mbarara municipality mayor, Roberts Rutehenda also dried up over the infestation of the water hyacinth. Only the water hyacinth remains in the dry dams.
The national environmental management authority’s western regional environment public awareness officer, Jeconious Musingwire says, “Farmers infested the water bodies with the water hyacinth - thinking it would work as the water lilies that are a natural blanket for protecting water from evaporating (everpotranspiration).”
He says the farmers’ false belief prompted them to pick the hyacinth from River Rwizi and put it in all water bodies in Kanyaryeru. “When the cow dug was eroded by floods into the dams, it increased nutrients in the water (eurtrophication) and water hyacinth also increased thus clogging the dams,” he explains.
The water lilies, he adds, are getting scarce and endangered due to the drying up of swamps, water bodies and the low multiplication of water in the remaining water bodies.
He says the water hyacinth that farmers substituted with water lilies has increased and covered all water bodies in the Ankole cattle corridor! “The dams have turned out to be the breeding grounds for water hyacinth for further infestation in other water bodies!”
Musingwire says that how are residents around Kanyaryeru dam going to be safeguarded from hand-picking the beautiful-flowered and ornamental water hyacinth from the infested and non-fenced dams and take it to other areas?
John Katera, a 38-year-old keeper of 30 cows in the area, says the dams are far apart and they need at least three dams in each parish. He says that apart from the water crisis, the grasses have dried up and soon the cattle will start dieing of starvation.
“Cows scramble for the few remaining green grasses around the dry dams and on roadsides. This morning, one cow was slaughtered after it was knocked dead as it fed on the green grasses on the roadside! Many more cows have been knocked dead,” he says.
Elnest Rushaija, 50, a farmer in the area, says that if it doesn’t rain in the next four months, the Omukashesheru dam will also dry up completely and farmers would only be left with an alternative of River Rwizi, which is gazzated in Lake Mburo national park!
Asked for a comment, the chairperson for Kiruhura district, Philip Kamugungunu says that in time of crisis, cattle keepers are allowed to water their cattle at River Rwizi in Lake Mburo National Park.
About the dry Kanyaryeru dam, Kamugungunu says it’s God’s plan to fill the dam with rainwater. “If it rains, we get water, if it doesn’t, we wait. But the dam was strategically dug where it is - to collect water since it is on the water way,” he said.
On centrally, the NEMA official, Jeconious Musingwire attributes the drying up of the same Kanyaryeru dam to poor location with no environmental impact assessment carried out, lack of water catchments and drainage patterns.
“Kanyaryeru dam had to dry up. There was no environmental intervention before locating it where it is. There are no water catchments around or drainage patterns. The dam only relied on insufficient raindrop offs. And the infestation of water hyacinth worsened the situation,” he says.
However, the success of an anti-water hyacinth pilot breeding ground for beetles beside Kanyaryeru dam, Nyabushozi in Kiruhura district is in balance as its surrounding water source to recharge it has dried up!
“How would the multiplication of the beetle breeding project be sustainable in the area when Kanyaryeru valley dam, which is the source of water for recharging the project’s pond, has dried up?” Musingwire says.
Musingwire suggests that there is need to monitor whether the beetles (Neochetina weevils) are active and multiplying or not.
The New Vision visited the two beetle-breeding ponds at Kanyaryeru on Thursday. The ponds are covered with green and water-logged and healthy-looking water hyacinth. The beetles are in there yet they (beetles) are bred purposely to feed on the water hyacinth!
The beetle-breeding pond was established in the area in 2004 by the ‘Removing barriers to invasive plant management in Africa project.’ The project is funded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), National agricultural research organisation (NARO), GEF (Global environmental facility) and Iinternational union for conservation of natural resources (IUCN).
However, much as it is the government’s role to protect and replenish the environment, am convinced that it’s also the role of all of us – to conserve the environment for we are its beneficiaries as well as the victims of harsh consequences of degradation.
· Ends.
Word count: 1,230.
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