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NEWS– Kanungu District Natural Resources Officer, George Agaba has asked the residents of Rushaka Parish in Nyamirama Sub County who border the Nyabushoro Wetlands to respect the wetland restoration orders that were put in place by the government of Uganda.

Agaba made the appeal February 2nd 2024  while speaking to journalists after supervising the climax of the restoration exercise of Nyabushoro wetlands in Nyamirama Subcounty where residents had planted crops that had depleted it.

Agaba who was accompanied by the District Environment Officer Ms Shibba Arinaitwe and the Subcounty officials said that the restoration of the wetlands was done after sensitizing the residents whose lives depended on the Nyabushoro Wetlands. 

Agaba said that the exercise was being carried out under the Building Resilient Communities Wetlands Ecosystem and Associated Catchment Areas Project which is being funded by the Government of Uganda and supported by UNDP under the Green Climate Funding.

Agaba said that the post restoration program will continue where the residents who have been asked to vacate the wetlands are given alternative sources of income to support their livelihoods and these include goat rearing, piggery, bee keeping, poultry among others.

Ms Arinaitwe said that the restoration exercise is being conducted under the National Environment Management Authority guidelines that were put in place to ensure that the population leave the wetlands and Kanungu District was one of the areas earmarked for this project.

Ms Arinaitwe said that 170 hectares of swamps which had been reclaimed in Kanungu District are to be restored and the people  who depended on it will be guided on how to have alternative livelihoods that are environmentally friendly to the the ecosystem for the future generations.

She  said that Nyabushoro Swamp has had been identified in order to protect further siliting of River Ntungwa whose flow has been alternated by the flowing water after the swamp area was cultivated and also ensure that the the surrounding wetland catchments are restored.

However some of the residents who had been using the wetland complained that there is selective distribution of animals and some of them have not been given yet there are no alternative sources of income to sustain their families.