Tycoons encroaching on Nakivubo wetland
Apr 18, 2006
High profile individuals and companies have started reclaiming Nakivubo wetland, the critical swamp that protects Lake Victoria from pollution.
By Gerald Tenywa
High profile individuals and companies have started reclaiming Nakivubo wetland, the critical swamp that protects Lake Victoria from pollution.
Those implicated include Sembuya, a city tycoon, Sylvia Owori, a top fashion designer and Meera investments owned by property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia.
Owori, who took over five hectares of the lakeshore wetland located in Kawuku, reportedly said, “I did not know this place is a wetland,†when the environmental inspector caught up with her.
Part of the wetland allegedly cleared by Owori, which lies in the lakeshore zone, has no development apart from a “site house†and a huge metallic container. It is suspected that she is intending to establish a residential house or a resort.
Nakivubo swamp is in the process of being accorded higher protection status as a wetland reserve. Its natural filtration role is estimated at sh3.5b annually. If it were destroyed, city residents would have to pay extra water charges that would become prohibitive, especially for the low-income earners.
Owori reportedly told NEMA officials that she bought one acre of the land from Kampala mayor Ssebaana Kizito. Ssebaana was not available for comment when contacted yesterday.
In the vicinity of Owori’s land, environmental inspectors on Monday encountered Mrs. Lydia Sembuya and summoned the developer to appear at NEMA on Tuesday. It is alleged that her husband, who is one of the brains behind the Sembule Group of companies, reclaimed the wetland and built a multimillion residential house.
“This is an intrusion into Lake Victoria and despite the low water levels you can see all the water in the channel and heaps of soil they put to push away the water,’’ said Fred Kiwazi, an inspector in the Wetlands Inspection Division.
The swamp that was six square kilometres has been reduced to about half in the last three decades and the encroachers are threatening to drive it into total destruction.
On one side of the swamp in Namuwongo, Meera enterprises is threatening to evict encroachers. “It is a case of a big encroacher replacing thousands of other encroachers,’’ said Kiwazi.
Kiwazi said they would soon call a meeting for Kampala City Council, NEMA and the developer over the impending eviction of the encroachers and take over of the 140 hectare part of the wetland. “I hope an amicable solution will be reached,’’ he said.
Godfrey Nyakana, the LC3 chairperson-elect for Kampala Central, also wants to rebuild his house that was demolished over a year ago. His workers have reportedly been maintaining the grass and planting trees in what would have been part of the compound of the residential house that was reduced to rubble.
An inspection a team from environmental bodies dispatched by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) chief, Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, encountered houses that have been built in the vicinity of Nyakana’s house.
Other encroachers that were given restoration orders and have not obliged include Major Oluka, who has steadily developed his house and is now erecting a huge fence near the spot where Nyakana’s house was demolished.
Mugisha’s team on Monday also blocked private surveyors sent by the Kampala land board to demarcate plots from the wetland near Silver Springs.
Kiwazi ordered them to stop and warned the developers against reclaiming the wetland edges between a church in Kitintale and Silver Springs.
NEMA and the Wetlands Inspection Division are to organise a series of awareness meetings on the importance of the swamp.
The swamp holds storm water and polluted waste from industries as well as partially- treated sewage that is naturally filtered so that the clean water is passed into the mouth of Lake Victoria at Murchison bay.
High profile individuals and companies have started reclaiming Nakivubo wetland, the critical swamp that protects Lake Victoria from pollution.
Those implicated include Sembuya, a city tycoon, Sylvia Owori, a top fashion designer and Meera investments owned by property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia.
Owori, who took over five hectares of the lakeshore wetland located in Kawuku, reportedly said, “I did not know this place is a wetland,†when the environmental inspector caught up with her.
Part of the wetland allegedly cleared by Owori, which lies in the lakeshore zone, has no development apart from a “site house†and a huge metallic container. It is suspected that she is intending to establish a residential house or a resort.
Nakivubo swamp is in the process of being accorded higher protection status as a wetland reserve. Its natural filtration role is estimated at sh3.5b annually. If it were destroyed, city residents would have to pay extra water charges that would become prohibitive, especially for the low-income earners.
Owori reportedly told NEMA officials that she bought one acre of the land from Kampala mayor Ssebaana Kizito. Ssebaana was not available for comment when contacted yesterday.
In the vicinity of Owori’s land, environmental inspectors on Monday encountered Mrs. Lydia Sembuya and summoned the developer to appear at NEMA on Tuesday. It is alleged that her husband, who is one of the brains behind the Sembule Group of companies, reclaimed the wetland and built a multimillion residential house.
“This is an intrusion into Lake Victoria and despite the low water levels you can see all the water in the channel and heaps of soil they put to push away the water,’’ said Fred Kiwazi, an inspector in the Wetlands Inspection Division.
The swamp that was six square kilometres has been reduced to about half in the last three decades and the encroachers are threatening to drive it into total destruction.
On one side of the swamp in Namuwongo, Meera enterprises is threatening to evict encroachers. “It is a case of a big encroacher replacing thousands of other encroachers,’’ said Kiwazi.
Kiwazi said they would soon call a meeting for Kampala City Council, NEMA and the developer over the impending eviction of the encroachers and take over of the 140 hectare part of the wetland. “I hope an amicable solution will be reached,’’ he said.
Godfrey Nyakana, the LC3 chairperson-elect for Kampala Central, also wants to rebuild his house that was demolished over a year ago. His workers have reportedly been maintaining the grass and planting trees in what would have been part of the compound of the residential house that was reduced to rubble.
An inspection a team from environmental bodies dispatched by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) chief, Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, encountered houses that have been built in the vicinity of Nyakana’s house.
Other encroachers that were given restoration orders and have not obliged include Major Oluka, who has steadily developed his house and is now erecting a huge fence near the spot where Nyakana’s house was demolished.
Mugisha’s team on Monday also blocked private surveyors sent by the Kampala land board to demarcate plots from the wetland near Silver Springs.
Kiwazi ordered them to stop and warned the developers against reclaiming the wetland edges between a church in Kitintale and Silver Springs.
NEMA and the Wetlands Inspection Division are to organise a series of awareness meetings on the importance of the swamp.
The swamp holds storm water and polluted waste from industries as well as partially- treated sewage that is naturally filtered so that the clean water is passed into the mouth of Lake Victoria at Murchison bay.