Gulu water crisis signals failing environment

The water problems facing Gulu are being blamed on the dry spell which the country has been experiencing over the last six months or so. But we should not blame the crisis on the drought alone because there are wider environmental degradation issues at play here.
Uganda is believed to have lost almost one third of its forest cover in less than 30 years — with severe consequences for our collective ecology.
In the northern parts of the country, the situation is much more dire. The main driver of this problem is the felling of trees for wood fuel, although it is being reported that the clearing of wetlands is an equally devastating factor.
Additionally, the unrestrained opening up of virgin lands for cultivation is accelerating environmental deterioration.
Without tree cover, our previously beautiful climate is threatened. Extreme weather conditions like we have now impact our very survival. The first season rains have already been delayed, which means the planting season is behind schedule. Late rains herald the spectre of famine.
What Gulu is experiencing is not new because large parts of Karamoja sub-region have suffered a debilitating drought over the last one year. Conscientious environmentalists have pointed out that unless something is done to arrest the current widespread deforestation, Ugandans can expect that in less than a decade, our land could be fast-tracked to becoming a semi-arid waste land.
It is time the National Forestry Authority and National Environmental Management Authority took real action in mitigation. It is not enough for either authority to, every now and then, evict a few souls. The country is crying out for a comprehensive plan to address the huge and growing question of environmental degradation.
A lot of sensitive areas that should have been protected have been opened up to human settlement partly because the government has, at times, not been willing to take decisive action on encroachers – in some cases because of short-term political considerations.
The drying-up of NWSC’s Oyitino Dam must remind everyone that man’s destructive activities have brought the calamity of climate change very close to home.
Worrying murmurs are already being heard about the state of Lake Kyoga. A combination of heavy silting, again as a result of human mischief, including near-shore cultivation, and the apparent failure to bring the water hyacinth under proper control are to blame. The falling fish catch on Lake Victoria, partly because of industrial-related pollution, is also feared to be directly related to the failing state of this water body. Time to act is now.

The issue: State of our environment.
Our view: The country is crying out for a comprehensive plan to address the huge and growing question of environmental degradation.