Agriculture ministry ponders forceful eviction of encroachers from shorelines

One of the minstry of works ferries uprooting part of the floating islands along Masese landing site.

Jinja, Uganda| AFP |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The government has resolved to forcefully eject all persons who encroached on wetlands and shorelines along the different lakes across the country.

State Minister for Fisheries Hellen Adoa Says that many of the encroachers have failed to heed to calls to vacate the shoreline, threatening the natural resources and their habitats.  According to Adoa, all the lakes are now covered with floating islands that descended from the weakening shorelines as a result of human activity.

Adoa stresses that the shoreline communities have been sensitized to voluntarily abandon the illegal farmlands around the water bodies in vain. She adds that encroachers have stretched illegal activities across the country leading to the blockage of the smooth flow of excess water from the lakes, forcing it to invade the shoreline.

She adds that such excess water spreads on the shoreline hence the increase of floating islands along the country’s major water bodies. She was speaking in Jinja district today, where expert teams have embarked on uprooting a seven-acre piece of floating island that settled at Masese Landing Site.

The country recorded its’ heaviest loss as a result of the semi floating islands on April 14 when part of the debris blocked the turbines at the main power stations of Nalubaale, Kiira and Bujagali, causing a nationwide power outage.

However, Jinja based fishermen led by their vice chairperson Philemon Kudera, have accused the responsible agencies of foul play in their efforts to uproot floating islands as most of them only respond when the islands are nearing the new bridge yet the same can be anchored at the shoreline. 

Kudera further says that standby teams mandated with ensuring sanity along Lake Victoria have ignored alerts from fishermen yet at the same time, they take long to clear them from the landing sites.

However, Feni Luvuyo, the Eskom’s technical director argues that their main mandate is to ensure uninterrupted power supply to their clients and further advised fishermen to direct such alerts to his monitoring team, which he says will quickly persuade other partner agencies to offer timely response. 

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