Uganda: Act Now Before Country Becomes Desert
Eric Kashambuzi, AllAfrica.Com, 23 December 2008
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued in September 2008 warned that 80% of Uganda will become desert within 100 years.
This warning should be taken very seriously. Already, there are some parts of the country where desert conditions are evident, especially during the dry season.
It is important to remember that the present day Sahara Desert was once fertile and green where crop cultivation and herding thrived. Around 5000 BC, animals including cattle, were domesticated in the area. And between about 4000 BC and about 2000 BC, the Sahara was full of economic activity and well populated.
Then the climate changed: wet periods became shorter and eventually the area turned into a desert in part because of extensive de-vegetation caused by herding and cultivation activities, which forced the dwellers to move away into other parts of Africa and Asia.
In order to take corrective measures in Uganda, there is urgent need to identify the causes of thermal and hydrological changes that are taking place. So far there are three schools of thought.
There are those who think that climate change has been exaggerated by armchair thinkers. They continue to talk about Uganda as the 'Pearl of Africa" with adequate and regular rainfall, moderate weather and fertile soils still suitable for the production and export of tropical products to earn the badly needed foreign money. They do not see an immediate threat and want to continue business as usual, clearing forests for development and export of timber as well as draining wetlands to continue production for domestic and export markets.
The second school is convinced that the changes that are taking place are being caused by 'acts of God' or external forces beyond Uganda's control. They therefore think or imply that by and large the solution will have to come from outside.
A representative of the Uganda Government is reported to have said on World Food Day in 2008 that some 9 million (30 percent) Ugandans were starving due to food shortages caused by the effects of climate change (no mention was made of massive food exports to neighbouring countries and beyond, and sales to the World Food Programme as well as food losses due to lack of storage and processing facilities).
What government can do, according to its statement, is to strengthen the capacity of the Meteorological Department to enhance climate forecasts that would give farmers accurate information and better guidance. While strengthening the Met Department is commendable, it would not mitigate climate change.
This brings us to the third school to which the author belongs, which contends that the major cause of climate change is human activity. The British administration enforced measures to stabilise the climate. They included setting aside areas such as wetlands and hill tops as catchment areas from human activity. Contour farming was introduced in hilly areas to control water runoff and soil erosion.
These measures were drastically altered when President Idi Amin's government introduced the economic war in the 1970s, requiring that every land area should be used for farming to increase economic growth.
Wetlands were drained en masse. Hilltops and slopes were cleared of vegetation, exposing them to wind and water erosion. Fertile soils were swept away in brown floods that followed.
While the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government which has been in power since 1986 understands the adverse effects of climate change and knows what needs to be done to mitigate it, it has not done much.
Large swathes of land, including wetlands, have been cleared of vegetation with serious repercussions. Forests have been earmarked for agricultural development, trees felled to increase timber exports, commercial ranches created to graze more livestock for the export market.
Removal of subsidies on electricity and kerosene forced many households to resort to wood fuel and charcoal as the main source of energy and increased deforestation. The encouragement of commercial agriculture for export and the increasing use of bricks, sand and stones for construction have resulted in massive de-vegetation as well.
The total consequences have been tragic, with dropping water tables, shrinking lakes, drying rivers, shorter wet seasons and longer and hotter dry seasons having adverse effects on agriculture, as well as introducing new diseases such as malaria in previously malaria-free areas.
Market and free enterprise mechanisms do not possess the comparative advantage to address these challenges. Therefore, the state will have to intervene in various ways, including encouraging tree planting, setting aside delicate areas for biological conservation, introducing intensive agriculture to reduce land clearance and water management, as well as managing livestock to reduce environmental damage.
A hundred years within which to prevent Uganda's land from becoming a desert is a very short time. There is no room for complacency. The time to act is now.
A Creek Indian proverb sums it all up: "Only after the last tree has been cut down; only after the last river has been poisoned; only after the last fish has been caught; only then will you find that money cannot be eaten".
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