Parliament will name a Committee on Climate Change in a campaign to mitigate global warming, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has revealed.
She made the revelation while launching a tree planting initiative towards
climate change mitigation in the Lake Victoria catchment area of the new Katosi
water treatment plant on Thursday, 11 July 2019.
“Parliament has taken responsibility seriously on climate change. We have now
moved from the parliamentary forum on climate change to have a committee which
we shall name next week,” said Kadaga.
She asked National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) to provide free tree
seedlings to primary schools.
“I see children here, give them trees to plant in schools and their homes so
that they grow up knowing how to plant trees,” said Kadaga.
She warned local authorities against promoting deforestation, saying that
leaders should be at the forefront of afforestation.
“I was very angry to hear that a court ordered cutting of Bugoma forest. We
were told that we cannot interfere with a local government forest; who is the
local government and who is it for. I think the forest was planted with
resources of the people and government,” said Kadaga.
She also expressed disappointment with the Minister of Finance, saying that the
ministry has repeatedly frustrated efforts to operationalize the Tree Fund.
“I am very angry with my grandfather, the Minister of Finance for not
operationalising the Tree Fund. On two occasions, we passed the money in
Parliament; when they went back somewhere, they cancelled it. I don’t know
where our priorities are,” said Kadaga.
She urged Members of Parliament to continue advocating for the
operationalization of the Tree Fund.
The Minister of Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris, called on NWSC to set
aside a budget for protection of the environment.
“One cannot have water without protecting the environment. When the environment
is not protected, you will have no water, and existence of NWSC depends on
protection of environment,” said Cheptoris.
He urged the Corporation to emulate developed countries like Costa Rica, which
he said, has reserved a percentage of tariffs particularly for protecting the
environment.
“In the case of Uganda, this reserved percentage would go to National Forestry
Authority,” said Cheptoris.
The Executive Director NWSC, Silver Mugisha gave a re-assurance that the new
Katosi water treatment plant will boost water supply in Kampala for the next 10
years.
“We are here seated on a site which is meant to construct a project whose
intake is 240 million litres of water per day but we are initially going to put
160 million litres. As you know, we have been having areas of dry zones but
when this project is completed, we shall be assured of constant water supply,”
said Mugisha.
He added that the tree planting project is aimed at ensuring sustainability of
the eco-system by avoiding water pollution.
“The reason we are going into the lake is because the lake is polluted at the
shores and we are being proactive to see how the lake is protected,” said
Mugisha.
He said that NWSC plans to plant 18,000 trees around the Lake Victoria
catchment area of the new Katosi water treatment plant and one million
countrywide.
He noted that the effects of climate change are adverse and affect water
supply, hence the need to plant trees and preserve the water systems.
