The Executive Director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Dr. Barirega Akankwasah, has held a stakeholders’ meeting in Lubigi Wetland, Nansana Municipality to review past operations and establish the level of compliance, determine how to handle the wrong practice of grazing cows and goats in the restored parts of the wetland, dumping rubbish and creation of gardens in the wetland as well as to look into the issue of the returning degraders.
The meeting attracted various stakeholders including security agencies, Ministry of Water and Environment, the Resident District Commissioner Wakiso, and the new Resident City Commissioners from the divisions of Kampala City.
The Lubigi Restoration exercise had been paused to allow people time to relocate and remove their property but some people have taken advantage of the grace period to continue encroaching.
NEMA, together with other stakeholders, will resume restoration activities with the intention of fully restoring Lubigi wetland system and other wetlands throughout the country.
All restoration activities will be preceded by awareness creation efforts, rapid assessments to map and profile people and their establishments in the degraded wetlands, and issuance of Restoration Orders for the assessed degraded wetlands. The following areas are planned for restoration: Kampala Metropolitan Area, Lubigi, Kawaala, Nabweru, Sentema-Ganda, Lungujja-Nabisasiro, Munyonyo, and Nambigirwa wetlands.
It should be recalled that encroachment on the Lubigi intensified between 2011, 2015 and more recently in 2022. Different parts of Lubigi wetland were encroached mainly by backfilling with murram and construction of residential, commercial and industrial structures, cultivation of sugarcane and planting of eucalyptus trees, and establishment of flower beds, especially along the by-pass, and pollution by waste.
Efforts to protect Lubigi wetland date as far back as 2012 when encroachers including the famous Bemba Musota were removed from the wetland. Restoration Orders were issued in 2016 for Nansana, 2018 for Nabweru area, 2019 for Nabisasiro, 2022 for Nansana, Sentema, Busega and Nabisasiro, in 2023 Busega, and again in 2024 for Nansana, Ganda, Nasere, Nakuwadde, Kawaala and Nabweru.
These efforts have involved a wide array of stakeholders including the Department of Wetlands Management, Ministry of Water and Environment, Kampala Capital City Authority, Wakiso District Local Government, Uganda National Roads Authority, Ministry of Works and Transport, Uganda Police Force, Uganda Peoples Defense Forces, NΕΜΑ among others.
Current records indicate that 315 households were issued with restoration orders around Lubigi; having failed to comply with the said orders, restoration commenced. Approximately, 214 households were removed from the wetland. NEMA, together with the other lead agencies mentioned above, will continue to do the restoration exercise.
Similar operations have been conducted in Lwera wetland in Kalungu, Lurindo wetland in Rukungiri, Akadot wetlands in Kumi, Kanyabukanja wetland in Buhweju, Kole wetland in Kole, Rwizi wetlands in Mbarara, Kitagata wetlands in Bushenyi, Pece wetland in Gulu, Nakaiba in Masaka, Kyabwato and Rwengwe wetlands in Ntungamo.
