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Pader, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leaders in Pader District have been warned locals against the rampant setting of fire on bushes.
The warning follows a weekend inferno in the villages of Aringobom, Agweng East, and Agweng West all in Pader sub-county that razed down seven grass thatched huts.
The fire was reportedly set in a nearby bush by an unknown person before it spread to the homesteads. At least 18 people are currently homeless, while household properties estimated to cost millions of shillings and crops in gardens were burnt down.
Pader Sub-county LCIII Chairperson Kainam Okello said that they have issued a tough warning to locals to desist from an unnecessary setting of fire in bushes. He says locals found to have spearheaded the vice will be prosecuted as arsonists.
Okello faulted the rampant wild bush fires on local hunters’ who mostly hunt for edible rats.
He says many farmers in the area experienced low harvest of crops in the last farming season due to flooding and notes that the little harvest stored shouldn’t be again destroyed by fire.
Simon Ludyelo Okello, one of the victims of the inferno says the fire spread easily to their homes because of the currently strong wind.
He says the fire burnt for two days uncontrolled due to the strong wind before subsiding Sunday.
Okello says he has lost all his household properties and food crop among them cassava and sorghum that he had stored.
Pader Resident District Commissioner Dusman Okee, however, advised locals to conserve the environment rather than burning them out.
He warned that such vice will no longer be tolerated in the district adding that the perpetrators will be dealt under the law.
Environmentalists, however, say the rampant bush burning within the region is greatly affecting the tree species and soil fertility.
Author Owor, the Founder and The Director of the Center for African Research says the vice is common around the dry season in preparation for opening up land and hunting of game meat.
Owor says reports indicate that the rampant bush fire is partly responsible for the dwindling of the rare tree species in the region and called for a friendlier approach towards land clearance by locals.
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