Poor Farming Methods Polluting Water in Uganda

Hundreds of thousands of rural people and their livestock in the western Uganda depend on polluted water according to environmentalists there.

Environmentalists in the region say most of the waters in the rivers, lakes, and wells there have been polluted and are now brown in color. They blame this mostly on poor methods of farming which causes soils from this hilly region to slop down the hills and pollute waters in the valleys every time it rains.

I visited this region and toured the famous River Rwizi, one of the main Rivers in the region which is a source of water for thousands of local people and their livestock. Snaking through the famous hills of southwestern Uganda, Rwizi was always a beautiful river that brought pride to the people in the area due to its sky blue waters and the purposes they served.

Today, River Rwizi is back in news not for its great beauty and history but for being under a brink of death. The deadly disease whose symptoms include browning and ever decreasing waters was spread to it by the people who depend on it according to the agency that oversees environment in Uganda-NEMA.

The focal person for the National Environment Management Authority-NEMA in the western region, Jeconeous Musingwire told me that the water of River Rwizi “should never be shaded blue on any map because its color is brown like soil.”

He disclosed that Rwizi’s waters are brown because of sedimentation. “There is a lot of soil wash off from the river’s poorly managed catchments areas,” laments Musingwire.

River Rwizi which originates from Buhweju, a mountainous county of Bushenyi district meanders through the bare hills of southwestern Uganda in Bushenyi, Ntungamo and Mbarara districts. It continues to flow via several cattle grazing places in this region before joining Lake Mburo National Park and later joins Lake Mburo.

Musingwire says valleys and hills which river Rwizi meanders through are usually set on fire in the dry seasons. According to Musingwire, the same hills and valleys are again faced with poor methods of cultivation in rainy seasons. This, Musingwire says, “leaves soils from the poorly managed hills and valleys dumped into the River every time it rains.” This, he says is not only happening to River Rwizi but also to several other water bodies in the region

Musingwire tips that poor methods of farming could continue threatening water sources in this region unless local people there promote soils conservation.

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