The Minister of State for Environment recently mentioned that the government’s effort to save and protect and conserve wetlands has been pushed down the drain by the reckless tourism development programs that are cropping. Ms. Flavia Munaba identified a number of spontaneous amusement centers and tourism amenities, several drainage systems along side methods of waste disposal as well as an controlled farming activities which is a source of income to so many people however this creates a huge impact on the benefits that the tourism industry would gain from wetlands.
She said all this while addressing the people on the World Wetlands Day which cerebrations were held in Rakai District last Friday with the theme as “Wetlands- Supporting Tourism for Our Survival. Make It or Break It. This theme gives the chance to think about the importance of wetlands to the tourism industry and that I s very important to remember the number of activities done from within and around these places especially the human activities and see if by 50 years from today there will still be able to enjoy the benefits that we are enjoying at the moment so says Ms. Munaba.
There are several cases of wetland destruction in spite of the fact that the government has done all it can to protect and conserve the wetland conservation unfortunately they are connected to reckless tourism. With the last 15 years only, there are about 570,000ha of wetlands that have been destroyed while the 2009 National Biomass research Study done show that this is as a result of ignoring the existing environmental laws.
However, the ministry of Water and Environment reveals that the importance of wetlands to the local people is approximate $11.4 million which is (Shs22.8bn) every year excluding all the money that is got from the eco-tourism activities done in the different communities which is a supplement to the God given benefits of the natural resources for instance the filtration of water so that it gets to the main source like the lakes when it is already filtered.
