Four Held for Constructing on Lake Victoria Shores

                                                                   
 
 
Four contractors in Masaka are in trouble for constructing houses on the shores of Lake Victoria in Bukakata Sub County. They are Peter Sseremba, Emmanuel Nsubuga, Ibrahim Nsubuga and Emma Kanwagi all residents of Nyendo-Masaka Municipality. They were picked up by officials of the National Environmental Management Authority –NEMA and environmental protection police on Thursday at Kachanga landing site in Bukatata Sub County when they found red-handed constructing permanent houses along L. Victoria Shores.



Aristotarco Mujuzi Kasekende, the acting Executive Director NEMA ordered for the arrest of the contractors and demolition of the structures they had erected on the lake shores. Kasekende says that the contractors dumped murrum along the shores to pave way for the construction. He says that they decided to arrest the contractors because they refused to identify the owners of the illegal structures.

// Cue in: “ If we find you……..”
Cue out: “…….erecting structures in a wetland.”//
 
David Muyinda, the Southern Region Police Environment Protection police officer says the suspects are detained at Nyendo Central Police as the hunt for the owner of the buildings continues. He says the suspects have refused to disclose the person who hired them but police is working closely with the authorities in Bukakata to identify him. Muyinda says police also confiscated the construction materials from the site and took it to police to be used as exhibits.


He says that both the suspects and owners of the building will be charged with environmental degradation in breach of the environmental Act. Emmanuel Nsubuga, one of the suspects who refused to reveal the identity of their employer, insists they are innocent adding that they will defend themselves when produced in court.


NEMA has intensified operations against environmental degradation. The arrest of the suspects came only a day after NEMA closed Novelty Tannery for polluting Nabajjuzi wetland, a Ramsar site in Masaka Municipality. Early this month, Maria Mutagamba, the Water and Environment Minister said the Ministry had started investigating all business who acquired plots of land in wetlands.