Environmentalists in Ankore have warned of devastating disasters as floods destroy property in Mbarara and Ibanda Districts.
The warning comes after five villages in Kagongi Sub County and Rubindi town council in Mbarara district were covered by heavy floods that washed away crops leaving residents worried about hunger.
The villages are Karire, Kamuganga, Kibingo Central, Rwakbashaki and Mubanda in Kibingo parish.
The villages experienced heavy floods that caused landslides due to rain that lasted for eight hours.
The landslide washed away crops that include coffee, banana plantations, cassava, millet, maize, eucalyptus trees, fish ponds and the 800 million Kibingo gravity water scheme.
Among the affected is Merabu Munanukye a resident of Kibingo village who said they are worried that now Kibingo hill has had such a rift their lives are in danger noting that it has never happened for the last 40 years she has lived in the area.
She says they have been having floods in the area but not with such magnitude.
Venasious Munanukye, the Mbarara district Speaker whose banana plantation was washed away says property was washed for about 2.5km from the Kibingo Mountain, and later went to the lowland and settled in Rubindi town council causing floods.
Edina Nuwasasira the Senior Environment Consultant with Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) says a lot of advocacy has been to save the environment but people have kept a deaf ear noting that calamities are consequences of encroachment.
She adds that people have practiced poor farming methods that don’t preserve and protect the land from running water, especially those that cultivate the hills.
Jeconious Musigwire the western regional Manager of National Environment Management Authority -NEMA says the residents in the Ankore region are yet to see the worst since they have continuously encroached and destroyed the echo system.
He warns that the districts of Rwampara, Mbarara, Isingiro, and Ibanda will be liable to heavy disasters if heavy rains continue.
He says unless the people vacate the wetlands to allow them to hold the running waters and practice the sustainable land management system that includes Afforestation, digging terraces on the hills, and land mulching, among others such disasters will never end.
Seth Murari, an environmentalist says the improper disposal of waste into the wetlands and rivers but industries, factories and hotels has forced the blocking of waterways.
He says environmentalists have focused only on conserving the wetland but poor waste management is also affecting the wetlands.
Meanwhile, in Ibanda district two people were killed by running waters along the Kyangwahada Bridge on the Kakoma-Kyangwahanda wetland.
One of the deceased has been identified only as Turyasingura a Boda Boda Rider at Wills stage in Ibanda town while his passenger is yet to be identified.
The two were washed away by running water last night as they tried to cross the bridge that was covered in water.
Edith Tumuramye, the Chairperson LC II Mukakoma Parish says the running water that carried with it papyrus reeds covered the bridge following heavy rains that hit the area the whole day of Tuesday noting that the water levels have not steadied.
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