INCREASE FUNDING FOR NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT – WEST NILE LEADERS TELL GOV’T

The Yumbe District Senior Environment officer Mr. Andama Swaib Solo giving tree seedlings to a beneficiary recently. Photo by Robert Elema

BY ROBERT ELEMA

WEST NILE

A section of the leaders in West Nile sub region have decried the meagre resources allocated for the Natural Resources Department saying it cripples the implementation of the activities under the Department.

In an interview on Friday, Mr Tair Rongumu the Forest Officer for Obongi District said, the funds allocated for the department can’t do something tangible in the district.

He said, in his district of Obongi as a sector, they have a budget of Shs 3million adding that this money can’t do anything yet there are other priorities in the district.

“How much has the state/government allocated for the natural resources sector? Yet all other interventions, be it the guns, be it the industries among other sectors, all of them sit on the land but you can’t do all these when the environment is crying,” he said.

“We have human activities that degrade the environment and such issues could easily be addressed through enforcement. The enforcement of the law is very weak in the region and this takes us back to the issue of funding where you can’t do enforcement with only Shs 3million,” he added.

He said, there is a need for them to take a deliberate move to have a lot of funding in this department so that the activities can run without glitches.
Mr Bran Acikule the LC 3 chairperson of Midia subcounty in Koboko District says, the natural resources department has been the most ignored department among other departments in the local governments.

He said, it’s hard for the local governments to allocate resources for the natural resources department because there are limited revenue sources to support such a budget.

“We have been sharing with the central government to at least increase the central government transfers to support the department. If we had enough resources, we would have taken such a department as a priority because issues to do with the environment is not a joke,” he said.

Mr Samuel Tako, the Obongi senior assistant Chief Administrative Officer said, staffing gap is another challenge affecting the department.

He said, there are a lot of responsibilities being developed for the lower local governments but the capacity of the lower local governments in terms of staffing is not being adequately addressed.

“I don’t know how many staff are there under the natural resources department but for us in Obongi, we only have two forest rangers. If we are developing more responsibilities to the lower local government, the issue of human resource needs to be addressed for effective service delivery,” he said.

Mr Moses Chuna Kapolon, the Yumbe Chief Administrative Officer said, all lives depend on the environment and that there is need for the government and the parliament to look into the issues of policies and budget for the natural resources department as it has been underfunded.

“Much as our lives depend on natural resources, the resources we put as a government into the environment/natural resources sector is so little. We are paying the scientists under the natural resources department more salary than the money they use for the activities,” he said.

“Every quarter, I release close to Shs 5million to the natural resources department but the head under this department earns Shs 6million per month as salary so, you can see this kind of slope sided strategy,” he added.

He said, they don’t have much to do in terms of reversing the negative climatic change as the local governments, so it would be good if the budget for natural resources is lifted since life depends on nature.

Mr Abdulmutwalib Asiku the district chairperson for Yumbe said, the climate change has affected them greatly.

“We are experiencing a very long dry spell due to unreliable rainfall because we have degraded the environment. Besides all the interventions that are put in by a number of agencies, we haven’t been able to address totality challenges related to the environment,” he said.

He said, they have on several occasions discussed in meetings on how resources can be appropriated to the environment sector but they are still grappling with those challenges.