Nile Basin districts to support Kalagala, Itanda falls conservation project

What the report says

Local government leaders from Jinja City, Jinja District, Buikwe, Kayunga and Kamuli have backed a five-year conservation effort for the River Nile and the Kalagala and Itanda Falls area, according to The Observer. The commitment was expressed at a stakeholder meeting held by the Ministry of Water and Environment’s Department of Environment Services at Bilkon Hotel in Jinja City on July 30.

The project, called the Kalagala and Itanda Falls Conservation and Protection Project, is planned to run until 2031. The Observer reported that it is intended to reduce environmental damage linked to the Bujagali and Isimba hydropower developments, while supporting biodiversity, tourism, fisheries, riverbank management and the restoration of degraded forests and fish breeding areas. Officials said the programme will also support parish-level enterprises and cover riverbank protection from Jinja up to Moyo.

Maureen Anino, the assistant commissioner for Environment, said the plan includes demarcating and restoring about 2,400 kilometres of buffer zones along the Nile with indigenous trees, and eventually gazetting the river buffer as a special conservation area. She also linked the effort to protecting major power infrastructure that depends on the river. Local leaders at the meeting said the project could support livelihoods, reduce poverty and protect cultural and spiritual sites, while warning against illegal sand mining, wetland encroachment, illegal fishing and land disputes.

The Observer’s report places the initiative in the wider context of balancing hydropower, conservation and community use of the Nile, a river that crosses several countries.