Curbing wetland encroachment in Nakawa division: addressing coordination challenges within land governance structures

Abstract

In Uganda, wetlands, especially in urban areas, are almost extinct. By 2016, the extent of wetland decline varied from over 53.8% in the Lake Victoria basin to 14.7% in the Lake Albert drainage basin (Monitor, 2020). Wetlands, disappearing 3 times faster than forests, are globally the most threatened ecosystem. Wetlands in Kampala City are under immense pressure due to rapid urbanization & human activity that need to be efficiently regulated. Inadequate coordination between key land management stakeholders in Kampala City eg MLHUD, KCCA, NEMA, etc, towards this vice, leads to issuance of land titles in wetlands, subjectivity in implementation of regulations, bureaucracy in compensating developers and so on.

It is ideal for economic growth to occur alongside environmental preservation to facilitate sustainable development. Adverse effects on the environment have resulted from unguided and unregulated land use patterns & techniques thus hindering sustainable development. This is through worsening the ongoing climate crisis in Uganda, worsening floods, reducing biodiversity, and so on. It is therefore essential for key land governance structures to manage the land use patterns more effectively to facilitate sustainable development in regards to land use.