{UAH} Ministry of Water and Environment secured a court order - destruction continued.
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Meera Investment is the law, the state and the Uganda Army surprising how people fail institutions
NEMA has failed its duty, says environment minister
Publish Date: Dec 06, 2014
By Gerald Tenywa
KAMPALA - Kinawataka swamp on the fringes of Kampala city has almost been wiped out and it will take serious efforts to restore it, according to Flavia Munaaba, the state minister for environment.
Kinawataka is one of the critical swamps in Kampala shielding Lake Victoria from pollution. Others are Nakivubo, Kansanga and Namanve.
According to Munaaba, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), has failed in its duty of protecting the wetland for posterity.
"I want the officials of NEMA and the wetlands management department to declare that they have failed the country. Where do these people get the courage and authority to fill the wetland?" she asked on Wednesday, during the inspection of the affected area, where developers want to construct warehouses.
The New Vision newspaper on Monday published an article highlighting the plight of Kinawataka that has consequently resulted into increased floods between Kyambogo and Banda along the Kampala-Jinja highway. The floods are also threatening communities in the low-lying areas of Banda and Kinawataka.
Collins Oloya, a commissioner of the wetlands management department, said the mandate of managing wetlands lies with NEMA, which issued the permit to convert the wetland into warehouses, thus fuelling the destruction of the swamp.
The Enviroment Impact Assesment approved request for the project, he said was submitted by one Bob Kanabi.
An environmental impact assessment is a study undertaken to establish the likely impacts of a proposed project and proposed interventions to mitigate them.
A decade ago, Kinawataka was among the wetland reserves in Kampala, which NEMA was proposing, in order to minimise the pollution of Murchison Bay (Lake Victoria), a source of drinking water for people in Kampala.
In recent years, the allocation of Kinawataka swallowed its edges as communities also pushed into the swamp.
On November 5, Paul Mafabi, the director for enviromental planning in the Ministry of Water and Environment wrote to Kanabi, Augustine Byaruhanga and the managing director of Meera Investments Ltd, ordering for the halt of the activities on the swamp.
"Preliminary findings point to Meera Investiments as the current title holders," he said.
Entrepreneur Sudhir Ruparelia is chairperson and managing director of Meera Investments.
Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Water and Environment secured a court order which overturned an injunction granted to the developer. But the destruction continued.
Armed soldiers deployed at the site by unknown people forced the Environment Protection Force-EPF to withdraw paving a way for massive destruction of the swamp.
Munaaba said she had since engaged Gen. Katumba Wamala, the chief of Defence Forces to explain the deployment.
The deputy Commandant of the environment Police, Simon Okoshi, said they will resume guarding the contested area.
Is Kinawataka a zoned industrial area in Kampala City as Namanve , Nalukolongo are?Now read this: an Environment regulator i asked to talk about environmental issues as a non environment regulator explain environmental issues!
There is something peculiar in the way wetlands including Lweza were allocated to so called investors. Even a mildly educated civil servant and politicians who are largely behind this sort of things will know that water in natural wetlands can't be displaced whatever amount of efforts - and this is specifically lethal in Kampala hilly and valley topology not least Lake Victoria wetland.
Dr Tom Okurut, the executive director of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), said he was not aware of any activity going on at the disputed wetland. "Authorisation for development and or construction is done by city authorities. As Nema, we have not approved or issued a certificate (Environment Impact Assessment) regarding that area," Dr Okurut said in a telephone interview
"We asked them to list down all their environmental concerns and they were addressed. I do not think they have any environmental grounds to complain now. The argument should be about social inconvenience and environmental nuisance which should go to the planning authority not Nema," she said on phone yesterday.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Authorities-look-on-as-Kinawataka--disappears-/-/691232/2513334/-/m6g3k8/-/index.html
That is why we have stopped the reclamation severally before," he says, before showing and the reported developer identified as Meera Investments.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Flooding-feared-as-investors-reclaim-Kinawataka-wetland/-/688334/2209114/-/pbn1pjz/-/index.html
Despite several media reports highlighting the abuse going on at the Katoogo Wetland in Kinawataka, a suburb of the city, authorities have chosen to keep mute and look on as the wetland degradation goes on.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Editorial/Stop-rape-of-this-wetland/-/689360/2269400/-/cpy9xbz/-/index.html
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_____________________________Bwanika Nakyesawa Luwero
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