1,000 farmers evicted as govt starts restoring Busia wetlands

The government has started evicting close to 1,000 farmers who have been carrying out illegal activities in three major wetlands in Busia District.

The restoration, which started along River Namukobe in Busitema sub-county, is to be extended to River Malaba, Sio and Luboka wetlands.

Mr Wilberforce Wanyama, a senior water officer in the Ministry of Water and Environment, said the government targets restoring the aforementioned wetlands in its operation.

“All the three wetlands have been badly degraded with the encroachment at over 90 per cent, and that is why we have embarked on the restoration exercise,” Mr Wanyama said in an interview on Wednesday.

He further explained that the restoration will involve removal of all foreign materials in the wetlands, especially rice, eucalyptus trees, yams and tomatoes, adding that they had since slashed over 50 acres of rice and eucalyptus trees, and expect to clear gardens along the Namukobe wetland.

Namukobe wetland is drained by River Namukobe, which is a tributary of the larger River Malaba which has deteriorated over the years in volume due to human activities.

It flows north of Busia District, confluences into River Malaba which pours its water into river Mpologoma and into Lake Kyoga.

As a line ministry, he said, they are out to implement the Presidential directive on stopping illegal activities in wetland areas and preservation of the ecosystems throughout the country.

According to Mr Wanyama, Namukobe wetland, where the operation has started, previously had fish, papyrus for making mats, a lot of water which was being used by residents, and was a grazing area for livestock, but has been degraded up to 90 per cent.

The Busia District Environment Officer, Mr Jimmy Ngolobe, said the operation started in Namukobe wetland and will spread to the banks of River Malaba, Sio River and Luboka wetlands, which have been encroached on by rice and eucalyptus trees growers.

According to Mr Ngolobe, the majority of the encroachers are not the local community in Busia, but some come from Busoga, Butaleja District and as far as Kenya.

Mr Moses Wanyama, a rice farmer along the wetland, said he was “surprised” with the operation, noting that two weeks ago, officials from the Ministry of Water and Environment had been in the area and given them up to June to remove their rice, tomatoes, bananas and eucalyptus trees.

Mr Wanyama said his rice, which has since been cleared, was three weeks away from being harvested, implying that the operation had ruined his and many other farmers’ main source of livelihood.

He said: “Many residents of Busitema and neighbouring areas earn money from selling rice in order to pay school fees for their children and for home consumption. With this eviction, we have been left with no option for survival because this is where we grew tomatoes, bananas and rice.”

Mr Yubu Masinde, another rice farmer, said he had acquired a loan of Shs1.5m to cultivate the rice which unfortunately has been slashed down, and suggests that the farmers and the government find a solution.

Ms Lydia Auma, also a farmer, thinks their elected leaders have not done enough to help them, while the government has reportedly not provided any affirmative action to the victims.