Thousands Run for Save River Rwizi as Water Crisis Hits Mbarara City

Amos Tayebwa

Mbarara

Residents in most areas from Mbarara City decry the water crisis as a result of River Rwizi drying out due to illegal human activities and encroachment that have devastated the river banks and wetlands along this river. This has caused an alarm from the stakeholders to the authorities for help and take action towards restoring and recovery of this single water source in the City.

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Apparently, several areas in Mbarara City which include Katete, kakoba, Rugazi, Kamukuzi, Rubiri, Kijungu, among others are suffering from the water shortage for close to two months now. Institutions and factories that depend on R. Rwizi water are frustrated over this crisis.

On Sunday, August 28, thousands of people turned up in an event for the Run to save R. Rwizi that was held at Booma grounds in Mbarara City. According to the organizers, this initiative that happens annually is meant to raise awareness and sensitize the communities from Mbarara City and greater Mbarara at large, to be responsible for the safety of this river which serves an immense population in Western Uganda.

According to Ivan Tumuhimbise, the leader for Worldwide Fund for Nature in Uganda calls upon all actors across the divide, both government, non-government, civil societies, traditional leaders, churches, communities and everybody acros river Rwizi catchment to join hands with the organisations which are already on board and be able to save this water source.

“As you may be aware that because of increased population of greater Mbarara, but also the decline of water levels we are seeing reduced access to clean water in this greater Mbarara, we think that if we can work together we can see a recovery of this river by ensuring that we are stopping degradation of the wetlands by promoting sustainable land use practices but also abandoning utilizing land along the buffer of the river,” said Tumuhimbise, WFN Director in Uganda.

“We are also seeing a couple of industries across this sub-land scape who are coming along with us to support the government of Uganda, the Ministry of Water and Environment and these local governments to put resources to make sure we are saving this R. Rwizi. At this moment I would like to thank our donors like Nile Breweries by giving us resources, teaming up with the ministry of water and Environment and different local governments in this region to work with local communities and local leaders to make sure we are restoring R. Rwizi and ensuring that we can be able to see an increase in the quantity and quality of the water in our great river,” he added.

Steven Emor, Analyst at Ministry of Water and Environment, Directorate of Water Resources Management says that according to the laws of Uganda, a major river like R. Rwizi, the river bank should be 100meters,but in the circumstances or in the situations like in Mbarara City, tis law has not been practiced.

“As the Ministry, what we did we compromised in some areas and took about 50meters, but even within the 50m we had challenges with some business entities, with some entrepreneurs who have insisted on staying in those areas well knowing that the law is not on their side. But in other cases, we have people who have understood why we are doing this and they have willingly left the river banks and the wetlands through our sensitization, as we speak, in some areas the wetlands are recovering,” said Emor, Director Water Resources Management.

Emor further made the call to the organisations and businesses to join the nature call of conserving and restoring the river Rwizi.

“As the basis of why we are running, we know since 2019 that’s when we had a real dive in terms of depletion of our water resources, in terms of quantity and quality. We did a water assessment and we came up with a cocktail of a number of intervention that we needed to do, all in all we wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of the practices that are really degrading our resource in Rwizi, so we had this Rwizi run as one of the practice we are using to drive awareness but also to call upon more partners to join us so that we can reach out the communities in the river banks, communities in the wetlands and also devise interventions in terms of restoring the wetlands and the river banks, but also changing the livelihoods of these communities by providing alternative income generation activities that do not degrade our river banks and our wetlands,” said Emor.