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Five arrested as authorities halt soil dumping in Lake Victoria
One of the truck drivers that was arrested by the Environment police on December 9, 2021 over dumping soil in Lake Victoria. PHOTO/EVE MUGANGA
What you need to know:
- According to residents, trucks have been ferrying murrum and dumping into the lake for about one month.
- Mr Tonny Acidri , the Nema deputy spokesperson said five people have been arrested and two trucks impounded.
Authorities in Katabi Town Council have halted activities at a construction site in Kitubulu on the outskirts of Entebbe Town where a developer was dumping soil into Lake Victoria.
“All technical people say they never sanctioned this. We have directed the people on site to stop dumping soil into the lake,’’ area Mayor Mr Ronald Kalema said.
By the time of intervention, the developer, who took possession of former Ssese Gateway Beach and currently erecting a multibillion hotel, had claimed the lake’s protected buffer zone measuring about 5 acres.
According to residents, trucks have been ferrying murrum and dumping into the lake for about one month.
A buffer zone is an area of land designated for environmental protection.
According to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) Act, any person constructing a permanent structure in a 200-metre buffer zone must seek clearance from Nema.
“The existing environmental regulations are very clear but the developer is not following this,” Mayor Kalema said Thursday adding that “the developer encroached on the buffer zone which may affect the area’s ecosystem.”
Entebbe Municipality Mayor Mr Fabricre Rulinda, said: “Although the developer has refilled (soil) to try and recover what was washed away when Lake Victoria water levels rose last year, this could have been done after securing clearance from Nema.”
Mr Tonny Acidri , the Nema deputy spokesperson said five people have been arrested and two trucks impounded in connection with dumping murrum into the lake at Kitubulu.
“We advised the developer to use the place sustainably by obtaining an Environment Impact Assessment certificate and to apply to Nema for a lake shore user permit , which he did; however as of today, we haven’t issued the permit. Therefore, pouring murrum into the lake is illegal,” he concluded.
Lake Victoria endangered
In 2013, the former executive director of Nema Dr Tom Okurut presented a paper on the fate of Lake Victoria. In the paper, he predicted that the lake would dry up due to human activities such as overfishing, pollution, conversion of forests and wetlands into farmland that remove the vegetation cover from soil, resulting in massive silting.
Dr Okurut pointed out that “Lake Victoria is under intense pollution from the cities of Kampala, Kisumu and Mwanza since it is the critical source of water to the unplanned urbanization, including Kampala’s more than two million people who source water from Murchison Bay, also referred to as the mouth of the lake.”
Dr Okurut further pointed out that since Nakivubo swamp used to trap impurities like sewage, this is no longer possible since it was degraded. What happens now is that these impurities make their way into Murchison Bay, polluting it.
Another highlight of the paper is that there is no clear regulation of the lake. “Whoever is next to the lake regulates it as they see fit,” he observed.
Defiant developers
A couple of years ago , Entebbe municipal authorities demolished some illegal structures that stretch through the buffer zones on the shores of Lake Victoria along Nambi Road ,but some owners have since reconstructed the illegal structures .
