World Wild Fund headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. Environmentalists warned on poor weather conditions. (PHOTO/FILE)
KAMPALA – Environmentalists under their umbrella body, World Wild Fund (WWF), have expressed concern over the deteriorating weather conditions in the country brought by current climate change.
Speaking at the earth hour function in Kampala on Monday, Mr David Dule, the Executive Director of WWF, said Ugandans have destroyed forests and swamps, leading to prolonged drought.
“Currently water resources have been spoilt; research shows that our water bodies like Lake Victoria have been contaminated by pollution and other factors and this has also reduced the capacity of waters in our country,” he said
Earth Hour is all about uniting people to protect the planet. It can be, through servicing your car regularly, using an energy saving stove or planting a tree. Earth Hour is famous globally for switching off lights to show support for nature.
In Uganda, the team is using Earth Hour as a mobilization tool to unite people to take action to save the planet.
Mr. Dule added that the Paris agreement states that we should actually maintain the temperature at less than at 1.5 degrees but that this is not being done.
“This means we are losing the target and it calls to take action, this urgently requires acceleration development in the implementation of national adaptation plan that builds social and ecological resilient to climate change and to provide the resilient future for the community,” he added
Mr. Dule added that we already have the national adaptation plan but we really need to accelerate the implementation and have the commitment to maintain it.
State Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Godfrey Kiwanda revealed that weather is one of the biggest tourism products in Uganda.
“Tourists come to Uganda to enjoy our weather because its favourable but the climate change has affected the industry and Ugandan are not bothered to restore it, once we lose on this that’s one of the biggest challenges and set back the tourism industry is going to lose,” he said.
Mr. Kiwanda added that the weather condition has totally changed because of deforestation, air pollution and occupation hazards and it’s unfortunate that Ugandans call it development which is not right.
“Earth hour is one such opportunity for Ugandans to give back to nature by adopting environmentally friendly practices that will ensure that we conserve the part of African,’ He said
Mr. Kiwanda added that our vision 2040 and National development plan highlight tourism among the top avenues to propel Uganda into middle-income status.
“Tourism is currently the highest GDP earner in Uganda, and the current climate change has started to threaten our national resource basket, this, therefore, call for close effort to all Uganda to take action against climate change,’ he said.
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