By Malik Fahad Jjingo
Masaka — In a bid to protect environment Police and National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) officers have arrested at least 10 employees of Aqua World Uganda Ltd for degrading wetlands in Masaka District.
Aqua World Uganda Ltd is said to be owned by city pastor, Samuel Kakande of Synagogue Church of All Nations in Kampala.
The employees were picked from Kaziru landing site in Bukakkata Sub-county in Masaka District where they have been reclaiming swamps and cutting down trees to plant rice and mine sand.
The affected swamp and land stretches more than 12kilometres.
Last month, Police issued a directive stopping Aqua World Uganda Ltd, from operating at the landing site after violating operational license conditions that barred them from carrying out sand mining in the area.
Dr Jerome Ssebaduka, an official from Nema, said the operation was a follow up of the earlier directive, after getting information that Aqua World Uganda Ltd had defied the orders.
Mr Ssebaduka said the suspects were also using poisonous chemicals to spray the ground where they were preparing to plant rice on top of clearing neighbouring forests which he said is dangerous to the eco system of the area.
“Nema gave Aqua World Uganda a license permitting them to plant palm oil in the area but to our surprise, we received reports that they were instead planting rice and extracting sand yet this contravenes the license conditions which we cannot accept,” he added.
Southern Regional Police Commander, Maxwell Ogwal, said they had ordered Aqua World Uganda workers to stop working on the directives of the district environment department, but they didn’t take heed.
“Police could not just sit back and watch when swamps are being degraded yet the district had already advised them to stop until an impact assessment report on their new activities at the landing site is released,” he added.
However, Aqua World Uganda Ltd area Project Manager, Deo Kinobe Mukasa, dismissed the claims of using poisonous chemicals and depleting forests, describing them as baseless.
Recently, Parliament also halted similar activities by Aqua World (U) Ltd in Lwera in Kalungu District along Kampala -Masaka highway where different companies and individuals had dug deep trenches close to the highway.