Museveni directs encroachers on wetlands, lakeshores, river banks to be evicted immediately

President Museveni has officially written to the Ministry of Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris to effect the eviction of encroachers on wetlands, river banks and government forests with immediate effect to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“I am therefore directing you to remove all the people on the wetlands, shoreline, river banks and government forests,”Museveni said in an April, 22 directive.

The president however made exception of people in historical wetlands in Busoga, Bukedi and Kigezi whom he said were misled by earlier governments to allow them grow crops and these he said will be helped to practice fish farming and rice growing.

He however says that apart from those in the three regions, other encroachers on wetlands in other areas will have to be evicted.

“Since I know Uganda very well, I can confirm to you that all the other encroachers on wetlands are not bonafide people . They are not genuine but conscious liars and must be removed.”

Makes case

The president in his directive said that it is suicidal for people to encroach on wetlands, river banks and lakeshores due to the effects it has on climate.

He cited the recent floating island that caused a nationwide power blackout when it blocked Nalubaale dam along River Nile and government had to use a lot of money to clear it.

“The other day, two floating bio-masses hit the Owen Falls dam and even interfered with the electricity generation for some time. We had to undertake a lot of expenses to clear these floating masses. We are lucky they didn’t destroy the dam.”

Museveni in his letter said that responsible government officials who failed on their duty to ask people not to encroach on wetlands, shorelines, river banks and government forests should also be dismissed for failure to do their job.

“You should not only remove the encroachers but should working with local government ensure that muluka( parish) and gombolola( sub county) chiefs who never took action against the encroachers should be dismissed,” Museveni directed.

Recently, the State Minister for Environment, Beatrice Anywar launched an operation on encroachers on river banks and lake shores in all parts of the country.

She insisted that they will be forced off these featured and that they will not be compensated by government.

This is not the first time the president is making similar orders to evict encroachers but the same has not yielded many fruits.

Well as the “small fish” is evicted from the wetlands, river banks, government forests and lake shores their “big” colleagues including investors have remained untouched.

Many of the factories are situated in swamps whereas other government officials have deliberately grabbed forest land.

The efforts to clear them might therefore not bear any fruits.