Prime
Investor accused of defying order on dumping soil in river
Inspection. Officials at a section of River Katonga where soil was dumped. Photo by Sadat Mbogo
What you need to know:
- Encroachment. The environment body also accuses the investor of encroaching on an extra piece of land in disregard of their earlier agreement.
National Environment Managment Authority (Nema) has accused a Chinese company of disregarding their directive to stop dumping soil into River Katonga.
Nema states that the firm, Zitong Bang Ltd Katonga, has been illegally dumping soil in the river near a bridge in Kayabwe Town Council, Mpigi District.
“We issued an improvement notice to the developer, instructed them formally to remove the dumped soil and stop all activities taking place outside the approved area. A team from Nema has now visited the site and discovered that the warning and improvement notice was ignored,” a September 29 statement from Nema reads in part.
The environment authority states that the company’s action will interrupt the natural flow of the water and change its quality and quantity among others, hence interfering with its ecosystem.
Nema also accuses the investor of encroaching on an extra piece of land in disregard of their earlier agreement.
The authority states that the company acquired 40 acres of land in Kayabwe from a one Mwebasa, and applied to use the land to construct warehousing units.
“A team of inspectors from Nema visited the site and discovered that only six acres of the land was dry while the rest was not. Nema issued a user permit and approval to the company restricting activities to only the six acres,” the statement reads in part.
“Following an alert from a whistleblower, we inspected the premises and discovered that the developer was undertaking activities beyond the approved six acres,” it adds.
The statement comes after Mr Jude Mbabaali, the Masaka District chairperson, raised a red flag on the matter on his Facebook page last week.
“I have been shocked this morning while driving to Kampala to see a section of this river ...filled up with earth to reclaim land for the construction of a factory. When I asked the policemen guarding the site, they answered that it is a Chinese company. I immediately contacted National Environment Management Authority,” he stated.
Mr Mbabaali said he also contacted Mpigi District authorities.
Mr Peter Mutuluza, the district chairperson, said the title was issued on a public land but it was later converted to be a freehold.
“I think this was done in a forgery manner by the former district leadership and technocrats. We are likely to cancel the title after thorough investigation,” he said on Monday.
He said the Chinese firm managers visited him to convene a crisis meeting to forge a way forward, adding that they denied the allegations.
Our efforts to speak to one of the managers of the firm were futile.
“They don’t want to speak English,” one of their colleagues said.
The 2017 report on verification of government land in Mpigi shows that it has been encroached on by a number of people and institutions, thus constraining the implementation of several projects.
Law says
Parliament passed the National Environment Act, 2019 to specifically provide for emerging environmental issues, including protection of riverbanks and lakeshores from human activities likely to adversely affect the rivers, lakes and living organisms therein.
