KAMPALA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's ministry of water and environment on Wednesday started evicting over 600 families occupying a major wetland in the central part of the east African country.
Collins Oloya, a commissioner in the ministry said the four-day eviction exercise comes after a four month grace period given to the families living in the Lubigi wetland in Wakiso district.
"So all those officials who want to turn these operations political they should read the Constitution and seek for guidance and right now the operation will continue until all the wetland encroachers are evicted with all their things," said Oloya.
Stella Nalumansi, the Wakiso district wetlands officer said those evicted from the wetlands will have to pay for what the ministry has spent to carry out the exercise.
Environmentalists warn that there is need to protect the wetlands, noting that their destruction is costing the economy enormous amounts of money.
According to the Uganda Wetlands Atlas, wetland destruction costs the country nearly 2 billion shillings (over 540,000 U.S. dollars) annually, and contamination of water resources, which is partly caused by reduced buffering capacity of wetlands near open water bodies, costs the country 38 billion shillings annually.
