By Stephen Kalema
Presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Uhuru Kenyatta have called for immediate conservation of water bodies and the general environment at large for betterment of human survival.
The call was made this week at the opening ceremony of a three-day conference on Sustainable Blue Economy at Kenya International Conference Center in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to President Museveni, conservation of water bodies is one of the major keys for man to survive. However, man himself is now trying to kill up the water bodies.
“When we talk about blue economy, we are talking about life. There will never be life without water. Therefore, we should link lives of human being s with water bodies,” he said.
The Sustainable Blue Economy conference is the first global meeting held to discuss sustainable ways to conserve water bodies with the purpose of connecting abilities of the large water bodies and rivers to improve the lives of people.
The conference’s theme is ‘The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.
Although Uganda is a land locked country, Museveni noted that it shares water bodies like Lake Victoria and River Nile, with her neighboring countries.
“Conserving these few water bodies is the source of many benefits like provision of food, electricity, employment and climate regulation such as rain formation,” said Museveni.
However, Museveni said sustainable water conservation in Uganda, is under attack ever since human beings started interfering with vegetation which has led to soil erosion, silting of rivers and lakes, cultivation on hills resulting into landslides, over fishing and dumping of wastes in lakes and rivers.
“As government we are committed to water body conservation. We have controlled fishing, installation of surface radars to monitor lake activities, resettling of people who live in wetlands as well as electronic registration of all boats’ operations on lakes and rivers. Sustainable water bodies’ conservation should be priority for concerned governments,” said Museveni.
Museveni attacked developed countries for misusing water bodies by pouring industrial wastes. This vice, he noted has been copied by peasants in developing countries leading to destruction of vegetation swamps and water bodies by settling there and cultivating within wetlands.
Hosting President Kenyatta said the Kenyan government has developed new plans to conserve water bodies by fighting illegal fishing and provision of security on water.
“We have embarked on sustainable plans of conserving Kenyan water bodies. We have banned single use of plastics, we are fighting illegal fishing and provided funds to improved water conservation. So I call for a combined effort from every Kenyan to preserve these water bodies,” Kenyatta said, adding that until environmental resources are conserved, there will be no survivor on earth.
“There’s still need to learn how to manage aquatic resources in East Africa which needs working together.”
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