It''s not the quelea birds we should worry about!

By Akoit Isaac

Let us walk the talk and not talk the walk! On several occasions we tend to take serious issues for granted and on contrary because for  any project to prevail, with specification to chemicals  such as the avicides is susceptible to an environment and human health impact assessment as stipulated by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) guidelines.

One of the essential procedures of the assessment process is stakeholders’ consultation which involves the general public and not a group of individuals.

If an assessment was conducted, to what extent was the public given an opportunity to review the findings so that they are aware of the adverse effects?

According to the New Vision dated 24 July, 2013 in an article “Two million quelea birds killed to save rice”, Evarist Magara, the country representative of DLCO-EA said, before the spraying, his team moved around communities and sensitized people about eating the dead birds and not the effect of the Fenthion, also known Queleatox.

The latter has several effects on the environment and human health; spraying of this chemical would contaminate food sources, water, air, soil and other wildlife species in the area.

Queleatox was at one point used to eliminate parasites on livestock not until it was discovered to pose environmental risks that led to its cancellation.

Countless numbers of raptors, non target birds and rodents, as well as pollinators (bees) were killed in the process of application.

It was a headline that “Two million quelea birds killed to save rice” with curiosity, how sure are we that the two million, were only quelea birds?

“You can wipe away a few, but not the entire species”, Evarist Magara said that their mission was successful though the birds would multiply within four months and this would call for continuous control operations; how sustainable will this be?

Why all of a sudden when wildlife tries to survive at the expanse of human degradation, it is labeled as a “pest”? Are we willing to incur more costs on human health and the environment?

Oh believers as we pray do not forget the environment needs salvation in the name of ethics rather than politics! More recent discussions about the quelea bird mitigation have turned towards predicting breeding based on weather patterns, deterrence mechanisms like netting, boosting natural predators and even the development of quelea harvesting the bird as a source of food and income.

We are only dealing with a symptom to a problem; continues human population growth is exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth and putting pressure on wildlife habitats.

We should put into great consideration that people and wildlife have to co-exist for mutual survival, since each depends on the other.

The writer is a volunteer with the Jane Goodall Institute – Uganda
email: info@janegoodallug.org