Rwenzori leaders petition parliament on climate change

Leaders from the seven districts of the Rwenzori Region have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga over climate change.

The petition was read and delivered by the Kabarole district chairperson Richard Rwabuhinga on behalf of his colleagues during the closure of a four day climate change week that was held at Boma grounds Fort Portal under the theme ‘The Role of Leadership in the Increasing Climate Change Adapting Capacity'.

In the petition, the leaders asked government to increase research in high yielding and drought resistant seed varieties and to also make them available to local farmers.

The leaders also asked government to ensure that farmers get water for production by constructing valley dams to enable farmers to produce all year round.

The leaders observed that despite the existence of the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and the National Forestry Authority (NFA) forests and other natural resources are still being dilapidated.

"We are advocating for increased budget allocation to the agricultural sector from the current 6% to at least 10% more so government should commit 5% of its total budget to the counties natural resources" Rwabuhinga said while reading the petition.

The leaders also asked parliament to task government translate the Climate Change Policy 2015 into local languages and also disseminate it to the public.

The four day climate change week was organized by the Kabarole district local government in partnership with Kabarole Research Centre (KRC) a non-governmental organization operating in the Rwenzori region.

During the four days, farmers from the entire region showcased their different adaptabilities to climate change.

Julius Mwanga the executive director KRC stated that climate change is so critical just like HIV and terrorism are.

"Money should urgently be allocated to climate change at local government level where over 80% of the service delivery is done" Mwanga said.

He on the other hand criticized what he termed as the unfriendly relationship between the civil society and government.

"As the civil society we need to operate openly with government without any suspicion. We have on a number of times seen unfair laws being passed by parliament" Mwanga said. He however did not quote any.

Kadaga in her speech pledged to ensure that government establishes the tree fund to help restore the degraded environment.

The speaker also invited youths to pick interest in tree farming as a business to earn income for themselves.

"As youths, tree planting is very inevitable for you. If you do not have much land you can venture into production of tree seedlings as a nursery bed operator because obviously when government needs to acquire tree seedlings it will procure them from you" Kadaga said.

Kadaga said that she was disappointed by how government silos in eastern Uganda disappeared yet they helped government to store food.

"Government had silos but in this madness of privatization they were given away. I think now we need to revive our granaries at household level" she said.