The Uganda Atlas

NEMA 2008

Execution of the Kibale-Bukora eco-system Restoration plan 2007, Rakai District.

it requires heavy investment to make it suitable for domestic use. As such, the lake water is mainly used for livestock while the population prefer water from rivers, wetlands, shallow wells and bore holes, but these are not adequately available, leading to water shortage problems. Recent trends indicate continued shrinkage of the size of the lake, and numerous islands formerly non-existent are emerging, attributed to silting and reduction in the lake level. It is predicted that if this trend continues unchecked, and due to the eminent threats of climate change, the river flow may be demised and lakes dried, leading to a water crisis. Kijanebarola. Due to land degradation and productivity decline on land flanking the river, people have turned to the river banks and dry river beds, encroached on them and reclaimed them for crop cultivation, taking advantage of the relatively still fertile soils due to silt eroded from the hills and deposited in these valleys. The magnitude of the problem became so high that, in 2001 government embarked on the development of a strategy and action plan to restore the degraded wetlands, river banks and lake shores in the area, by removing farmers and facilitating recovery of both vegetation and water A further and new dimension of environmental change is being experienced in the river valley and Lake

eco-systems in these fragile areas. Execution of the action plan was undertaken in 2007, and within a period of just one year, impressive recovery has been realised especially with respect to aquatic vegetation and water levels which have improved significantly. Many people who have been to and still live on the shores of Lake Kijanebarola complain that the water causes their bodies to itch, when they bath it. The lake waters have developed a blue-greenish weed in powder form that is drawn in water from the lake for domestic use. The presence of this weed encourages accumulation of bacterial communities, which in turn leads to depletion of oxygen in the water body. This may be what underlies the local belief that Lake Kijanebarola has no fish and its water causes itching to the body when used for bathing. The situation is made worse by the high rate of fungal infection in the district and the entire region. Unguided cultivation, reclamation of wetlands, river banks and lake shores, bush burning has resulted into the bare hills of Kooki and “eutrophication” of lakes, and the attendant effects on human well-being. To the local communities, the blame is being directed to those people in positions of responsibility who have not made any serious efforts to halt these trends.

85