99 / 220
Execution of the Kibale-Bukora eco-system Restoration plan 2007, Rakai District.
NEMA 2008
85
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.
A further and new dimension of environmental change
is being experienced in the river valley and Lake
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
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.