By Inyakuni Kennedy

Obongi

Obongi district local government has decried the high level of destruction of environment by refugees and host community, calling for urgent intervention to address its advanced impacts on humanity. The district is home to over one hundred and sixty thousand (160,000) South Sudanese refugees mainly settled in palorinya and Itula sub counties, but the destruction is across the district.

Despite the growing level of destruction, for instance cutting down trees as a source of energy by both refugees and host community, there is no specific partner to deal with the issues of environment in the settlements.

In a meeting held on Monday last week at United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Moyo filed office, together with Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and other refugee partners, the leaders of Obongi District want a specific partner to be assigned to handle environmental related activities in the settlement.

Hajji Habib Buga Khemis, the chairperson Obongi district has expressed fear over the growing level of destruction saying it will negatively in a near future affect both community if not handled. “There is specific partner who is dealing in environment. We have recommended to UNHCR, OPM that there must be a partner, and they should also give financial aid to the district to support issues of environment. This if not addressed with urgency, we anticipate a worse situation in future, since is environment is key to humanity,” Buga noted.

The chairperson has also appealed to government to support the district local governments that are hosting refugees in West Nile region as the available funds are inadequate to handle environment related concerns. He said in a financial, year government sends only forty million shillings for natural resource department. “You see government is sending little money for environment related activities, for instance natural resources has a lot of sub departments like forestry, wetlands among others. How can government only send forty million shilling for a whole financial year? As Obongi, we have low local revenue to support some of the activities. Government must think otherwise there is danger ahead of us,” he said.


Mr. Unzimai Henery, obongi Natural Resources Officer

According to Unzimai henry the Obongi District Natural Resource Officer, plans are under way to increase forest cover from 9.1% to 15%. He noted community awareness on sustainable forest resource and waste management. “This awareness sessions have been done by the department and others were by partner supports. With the help of National Forest Authority (NFA) and UNHCR every year we give out assorted tree seedlings to interested farmers in Obongi. For instance last year we were able supply eight thousand trees to farmers,” Unzimai said.

Unzimai has cited inadequate budget for the department to operate effectively. He said the sectors under natural resource in a year has a total budget of not more than fifty two million shillings of which 50% comes from local revenue. He adds that: “the mindset of the community on bush burning is wanting, every year people burn bush even if you raise awareness to them, they don’t listen and it’s now like an annual event. Now with the climate change the severity and intensity of bush fire is very high because temperatures are very high and fire sparks the level of destruction will be high, we are promoting tree growing but if trees that have grown are burnt down, it’s a challenge to us”.

According to Mr. Aliga Ahmed, the chairperson works and natural resources committee Obongi district council, bush burning contributes to over 85% of destruction of environment in obongi district. “It’s a crime for human being to burn to environment because burning it has no value to you. There are so many living organisms that survives on the environment.  So why should someone burn the bush for either grazing animals or to open up farm land?” Aliga urged.
He said the demand for natural resources like trees is high in Obongi district but the local community have negative attitude towards planting trees despite continuous community awareness on the significance of planting trees including fruit trees to mitigate effects of climate change.

However, He adds that the district has designed measures to remove people who have settled in the buffer zones as they are exposed to several dangers like floods and wild animal like hippopotamus as they also contribute to destruction of wetlands.
The core mandate of environment and natural resource department at the district local government is to reduce environmental degradation and the advanced effects of climate change but also improve the utilization of natural resources for socio economic growth and livelihoods security for the people in an area.

COVER PHOTO: Hajji Habib Buga Hkemis, LC 5 Obongi district By Inyakuni Kennedy