Yudaya Nakinga, the Kakumiro District Natural Resources Officer who led the operation, says that they received intelligence information indicating that several hectares of the wetlands had been encroached on for different activities.
Two people are in police custody at Kakumiro central police station for
cultivating in wetlands. The suspects are Simon Samadhi and Stephen Atulinda,
both residents of Kakumiro district.
The suspects were picked in a joint operation involving police and National Environmental Management
Authority-NEMA on Saturday. They were caught red-handed cultivating rice
in Mabengere and Larokarungi wetlands in Kisiita and Mwitanzige sub-counties
respectively.
Yudaya Nakinga, the Kakumiro District Natural Resources Officer who led the
operation, says that they received intelligence information indicating that
several hectares of the wetlands had been encroached on for different
activities.
She says although other suspects managed to escape arrest,
they managed to apprehend the duo and will present them in court for wetland degradation
contrary to Section 36 of the National Environment Act Cap 153.
//Cue in;”Tusoboda oku kwatayo…
Cue out:…yena ayingirira entobazi,”//
Macrine Namiyingo, the Kakumiro District Environment Officer, says the
operations against people degrading wetlands will continue. She says the operations
were prompted by numerous complaints on the rapid destruction of the two
wetlands.
//Cue in;”Tukuterera abantu bona…
Cue out:…Tubasangiremu tuba kwasire,”//
Bawarane Kalisiti, the LC 1 Chairperson Kyamajara in Kisiita town council, says
his office tried to stop the encroachers from farming rice in the wetlands in
vain.
//Cue in;”Abantu bona aba…
Cue out:…kunu busaho Kisaru.”//
Section 36 of the National Environment Act provides for the protection
of wetlands and prohibits reclamation, erection 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 clearly demarcated so that even as
water levels and wetland vegetation recedes, the communities are clear on where
the boundaries lie.
