Hi, I am Anguzu, Radio Pacis AI Assistant. How can I help you today? Ask me about Radio Pacis, our programmes, frequencies, news, Arua, or the world around us.
One of the buildings of the encroachers is standing tall along the River Enyau Buffer at Ediofe Trading center By Dramadri Federick Arua City Arua city Environmental stakeholders are yet to commence eviction of encroachers on river Enyau buffers almost a year
One of the buildings of the encroachers is standing tall along the River Enyau Buffer at Ediofe Trading center
By Dramadri Federick
Arua City
Arua city Environmental stakeholders are yet to commence eviction of encroachers on river Enyau buffers almost a year after the 21 days eviction notices were issued to the settlers.
As per the data from Ayivu division Environment officer at least 120 households living at the riverbanks have been issued eviction notices pending enforcement.
Mary Dawaru, the Senior Environment Officer in charge of Ayivu Division, said that efforts to sensitize the community to move away from the riverbanks have faced resistance.
She warned residents living along the buffer zones to consider relocating for their safety, adding that their arrogance will ignite the city to take drastic actions against them.
“We have over 120 households that were already identified and talked to and these households were issued the 21 days eviction notices in September last year but as you may notice nothing of that sort has actually happened,” Dawaru revealed.
In 2022 over 200 people were affected by the River Enyau flooding that caused severe hunger, widespread malaria and loss of building and crops equally washed away.
The Ugandan government, through the Ministry of Water and Environment, has issued warnings to communities living along rivers, lakes, and wetlands across the country. Despite enforcement efforts to protect water banks, these messages have largely fallen on deaf ears, as many communities continue to exploit wetlands for food production and settlement.
David Kyasanku the Arua city town clerk said, the city has enhanced enforcement with the recruitment of 18 city law enforcement officers who are to take on the mantle to evict these encroachers.
He noted that with the help of the city court, those defiant encroachers shall strictly be apprehended to court for prosecution.
“We have recruited a number of law enforcement officers of about 18 now plus the police in the back and we now have the city court. Those arrested will be taken straight to court if they don’t want to leave,” Kyasanku explained.
As per the Section 55 of National Environment Act, 2019, it is an offense to encroach on wetlands, laying a maximum sentence of 12 years in jail or a UGX 600 million fine, or both for those who violate the act.
Uganda’s wetland cover reduced significantly from 15.6% in 1994 to only 8.9% in 2019 and through efforts, it has shown a slight recovery, with the latest assessment indicating that, the intact wetland cover has slightly improved to 9.3%.