Farming lowers Mt Elgon water quality, levels

BY DAVID MAFABI
KAMPALA. Ms Angella Nabukwasi scooped water from River Soloko at the slopes of Mt Elgon and she noticed two things about the water; it smells like sewage and it is brownish.

In River Sisiyi, another river that flows from Mt Elgon, Mr Samson Wedala also noticed that the water was dirty and turned brown.

In Manafwa district, Ms Caroline Nakwekwe from Bududa district says the water from River Manafwa has also changed the colour and it is smelly sometimes.

And more than that the water from these rivers has black sand particles and dead algae which makes it emit a pungent smell.

This has caused great concern about its effect on the hygiene of the people who live around and below this mountain.

Mr Samson Wedala says the dirt in the water is worsening so fast and that it could soon be a problem to the people if not treated before drinking in the homes.

“I noticed this dirt in water some 10 years ago but I took it as a usual thing but it could be brown in the day and very clear in the morning so it could confuse us,” said Mr Wedala, a resident of Zesui in Sironko district living along River Soloko.

Mr Moses Chepkurui, 49, a resident of Kapneibei village in Kapchesombe sub-county, Kapchorwa district, said the river Atari from Mt Elgon in Kapchorwa district started changing colour in 1995.

“When people settled along the banks and started farming at the banks the water became dirty. We stopped fetching drinking water from the river, we resorted to getting water from  unprotected wells within this area for fear of contracting diseases,” said Mr Chepkurui.

Reports from local residents indicate that the brown colour of the water worsens during the rainy seasons.

Like other Rivers in Mt Elgon sub-region [Kapchorwa, Kween, Bukwo, Bulambuli, Sironko, Mbale, Manafwa, Bududa districts], River Ataari that originates from Mt. Elgon, flows through the slopes of Mt Elgon and pour their waters into Lake Kyoga.

The Bulambuli District Health Officer Mr Muhammed Mulongo said the water is not safe for drinking and that the waters have been the cause of Cholera and other diseases in Mt Elgon sub-region.

He said although our grandparents used to drink water from Mt Elgon without treating it or boiling it since it was not contaminated, today it is very risky to drink the water without treatment because it is dirty.

“And I want to ask people to treat the water or boil it before drinking it to avoid risk of contracting water borne diseases like Bilharzia, Typhoid, Cholera, dysentery and diarrhea,” said Dr Mulongo.

He explained that nobody was staying in the hills close to water sources and that nobody was doing farming in the hills and along the banks of these rivers to contaminate the waters.

Mr Charles Wakube, the environment officer for Mbale district says what makes the water dirty is continued to use of globally outlawed chemicals that endanger humans and the environment by the encroachers.

Mr Wakube said the water levels of Rivers Ataari, Soloko, Manafwa. Tsutsu, Mahapa, Sipi, Namatyale, Wukha, Kado, have gone down due to human settlement and cultivation along the banks and that the water that was previously clear has changed to brown.

Ms Sarah Bisikwa, the Manafwa district environment officer said science experts have detected deadly chemicals in water collected from Mt Elgon.

"A number of banned agro chlorinated pesticides such as DDT, endosulfan, dieldrin and lindane that are used by the people living around Mt Elgon have been detected in the water showing that they may be in use," Ms Bisikwa said.

"And do you know that people defecate, wash, bathe from the rivers with soap and leave dirty water flowing,?" added Ms Bisikwa.

She said most of the chemicals, also known as persistent organic pollutants (POP), are listed under the Stockholm Convention as the dirty dozen because they persist in the environment and threaten human health.

Environmentalists and scientists say encroachment for farming and settlement at the Mt Elgon are the factors affecting the water.

Ms Bisikwa pointed out that Bugisu, Bukedi and Sebei sub-regions’ fertile soils are being eroded to river Nile, Lake Kyoga and various swamps in the low land areas without control because of the destruction of the vegetation cover at Mt Elgon national park areas.

She said most of the chemicals, also known as persistent organic pollutants (POP), are listed under the Stockholm Convention as the dirty dozen because they persist in the environment and threaten human health.

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is an international environmental treaty, signed in 2001 and effective from May 2004, that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

The Mt Elgon conservation area manager Mr Fred Kizza warned of impending "human catastrophe" if the districts surrounding Mt Elgon do not seek measures to address the increasing degradation of the natural environment.

 “People see natural resources as free and God-given and think God will care for them. Just look at a case of a pastor in Manafwa who quotes the Bible and says these the end times that is why the environment is degrading and that nobody is responsible but natural factors,” said Mr Kizza.

According to Mr Kizza, a total of about 4 million people living around Mt Elgon and in the neighborhood who use Water from Mt Elgon are at risk of water borne diseases if efforts are not made to control water pollution.

Mr Kizza says UWA field work survey reports and research indicate that the encroachment has soared to about 25,000 hectares as far as high altitude plants called Lubelia signaling great danger of environmental catastrophe for Pallisa, Budaka, Busia, Kibuku, Tororo, Bukedea and Butaleja districts, which are found in the plains.

“Actually, people are supposed to stop settlement and farming far about 10sqKm away from the slopes but they have gone beyond this to the level that Malewa is also facing extinction,” said Mr Kizza.

According to Mr Kizza, the forest soils have adequate minerals in protecting natural organic materials to maintain and improve vegetation growth, water functions, nutrients cycling and slope stability but that all the soil have lost their properties because of encroachment

 “There is a need to get people to know how their actions are connected to the mountain and rivers that flow from the mountain,” Mr Kizza argues.

Mr Kizza says Mt Elgon zone districts used to receive rainfall as early as late January but that ever since encroachment soared up, the rainfall patterns have reduced, streams have dried and big rivers have turned into streams.

The districts that surround Mt Elgon and benefit from Mt Elgon national park as a water catchment area include Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Kween, Sironko, Mbale, Manafwa, Bulambuli, Bududa, Kumi, Tororo, Butaleja, Budaka, Kibuku,Bukedea, Busia and Pallisa.

The MP for Manjiya County in Bududa district Mr John Baptist Nambeshe said there is very high bio-chemical accumulation due to massive encroachment, farming and settlement which also pauses great danger to the entire bio-diversity

"This massive encroachment at Mt Elgon national park coupled with deforestation, poor farming methods signals an environmental disaster for the region. Government and the local residents should design ways of ending encroachment and degradation at Mt Elgon in order to save our people from famine, diseases, landslides and earthquakes," said Mr Nambeshe, the MP for Manjiya County which is prone mudslides.

The preliminary geo-technical study of disaster-prone Mt Elgon by experts also reveals that people living on the slopes of Mt Elgon are at great risk as the dead volcanic mountain has developed bigger cracks, caused by heavy deforestation, poor methods of farming and poor land management around the mountain.

Population pressures

The National Environment and Management Authority (NEMA) and Uganda Wildlife Authority have warned that small mud flows seen on the mountain, with many water openings, is an indication that the rocks are under tension and that some small cracks formed due to bad farming practices, foot paths as well as road construction on the slopes, make the area waters dirty.

The state minister for environment Dr Goretti Kitutu, said because of the ever increasing population, people have encroached on the forest cover on the mountain for settlement and economic activities, loosening the soils.

Dr Kitutu said most people on the Mt Elgon National Park are ignorant of the environmental problems associated with massive encroachment.

“We need to tell our people about the dangers of encroachment, farming and settlement on the waters of Mt Elgon,” said Dr Kitutu.

A study carried out by UWA in 2013 indicates that although most rivers that flow from Mt Elgon national park are drying up, the water from most of the rivers is now unsafe for consumption once untreated. 

An ecological study on the Water quality analysis from selected rivers at Mt Elgon national park signed by Mr. David Ogaram for Mbale area water manager then also says massive encroachment beyond the bamboo zone were endangering the ecological functions of Mt.Elgon at a great rate.

"We took water samples from rivers inside the park, park boundary and outside the park for Physico-chemical and bacterial examination and it was deduced that due to massive encroachment, farming and settlement the rivers had a high number of dissolved solids that contaminated the waters," reads the report in part dated August 2012.

The report says that River Manafwa that supplies water to Mbale municipality, Tororo, Mbale and Butaleja was the most contaminated water with a total of 59.7 mg per litre total dissolved solids while Chebonet River in Kapchorwa stood at 22 mg/litre, Sisiyi stood at 25.3 mg/litre while Soloko River was at 32.3mg/litre. 

Reports at UWA also reveal that the water colour, turbidity, electrical conductivity, Alkalinity, hardness, iron content and manganese content have also been affected greatly.

The other affected rivers are Lwakhakha [Manafwa], Soloko [Sironko], Sipi [Kapchorwa], Sisiyi [Bulambuli], Kapsokoy [Kapchorwa] and Ririma [Manafwa] all of which originate from Mt Elgon.

Dr Gideon Wamasebu, the DHO Manafwa says that the greed and reckless nature of human activities at Mt Elgon water catchment area is killing the rivers.

“Algae you see under the water and black particles are symptoms of heavy pollution and silting, the algae can disappear with time but leaves disastrous effects,” said Dr Wamsebu.

Dr. Tom Okurut, the executive director of the NEMA blames primitive and harmful agricultural practices and indiscriminate felling of trees as some of the destructive activities that expose the land to erosive agents like rain, which wash the soils into the rivers resulting into silting.

Dr Okurut said restricted chemicals being used by untrained persons at the mountain like DDT could be the cause of the dirty water. 

“The greatest factors contributing to dirty water at Mt Elgon can be summed up into poverty, apathy, ignorance, unsustainable population growth and weak law enforcement,” said Dr Okurut.

He said without putting communities in the right place, the country is going to lose this water catchment mountain supplying millions of people in Uganda and Kenya and the livelihood of 20 million people in East Africa who depend on it directly and indirectly. Ends

Mt Elgon is vital to the social and economic functioning of the area, and is a water catchment supplying millions of people in Uganda and Kenya (van Heist, 1994). It is also an important area for species conservation due to the richness of endemic plant and animal species which can be found on the mountain (Howard, 1991).