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Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leaders across Karamoja sub region have embarked on campaigns against bush burning among the pastoralists to save the worsening environmental situation.
Karamoja region is currently dry and pastoralists have resorted to burning bushes to clear space for rat hunting, killing ticks and to allow fresh grass to germinate for their animals.
David Koryang, the LCV district chairperson for Moroto noted that bush burning is becoming rampant and it is putting both livestock and people’s lives at risk.
Koryang said many properties have been destroyed in the manyattas as a result of burning bushes, but the community does not want to learn a lesson.
He said since the region is dry and windy, the wild fire spreads very fast which in the process destroys property and life.
Justin Tuko, the deputy Resident District Commissioner for Moroto said there is a need to step up the fight against bush burning because it also threatens the security in the region.
Tuko urged the local leaders to embark on community sensitization to understand the dangers of bush burning because some of them think it is normal to use fire for clearing bushes.
According to Tuko, the dry grass is very nutritious for livestock and the pastoralists have not noticed it because they lack knowledge on improved farming.
Ambrose Onoria, the Resident District Commissioner for Kotido observed that bush burning is one of the dangerous activities which they cannot just watch as it happens. He warned the pastoralists to desist from the practice because the environment was being destroyed in the process.
Onoria says that on top of the area being a semi desert, the locals have seriously resorted to charcoal burning destroying hundreds of trees daily without replanting.
“We have to preserve our environment, the destruction is becoming rampant and the leaders are quiet about it, which is dangerous,’’ Onoria said.
Onoria said the destruction of the forest cover will show its effects in the near future and if leaders don’t intervene, the region will experience the worst climatic problems.
Emmanuel Lodio, the Kotido district speaker acknowledged that it is the role of council to come up with ordinances that will stem bush and charcoal burning.
Lodio says the leaders should join hands to fight the vice through embarking on sensitization and encourage the community to protect the environment.
He also established that the charcoal burners are now exchanging charcoal for sex which has also escalated the spread of HIV/ AIDs.
Since the beginning of this year, more than 1,000 homesteads across the region have got burnt as a result of wild fire set by pastoralists in the bush.
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