NAMAYINGO: Amid escalating climate change impacts in Namayingo, people have resorted to Lake Victoria for food and water, but are at risk of being killed by hippopotamuses and crocodiles.
On July 14, 2022, Agnes Anyango a resident of Mayanja village Namayingo district received the news about the death of her 22-year-old firstborn son who had gone fishing to bring food home. His brother, who was with him in a small wooden boat, narrates tearfully how the hippopotamus tore their boat apart as they approached the lakeshore during the morning catch.
“It broke the boat into two and we drowned, luckily I managed to swim out but my brother was grabbed by the furious animal and his remains were found three days after,” Ogutu narrates.
Anyango has not only lost her son but her farmland too, the hippopotamus have eaten her maize and vegetables she planted to sustain her family and pay school fees for her children.
Martin Kyapsire, the Local Chairperson of Banda subcounty reveals that six people and over 20 cows had been killed by hippos in a year in Banda Sub County, and these are exceptions of the cases that are never reported.
In addition, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) reports from 2009 to 2017, confirm that more than 13,000 human conflicts involving hippos, lions, leopards, buffalos, and chimpanzees have been recorded.
According to the District Local government report, in 2017, 90% of the population in Namayingo relied on rain-fed-subsistence farming as a source of food and income.
However, due to climate change, rainfall is no longer reliable and is difficult to predict and thus lake water use and fishing are the only alternatives.
The District chairperson, Ronald Sanya said, “the community depends on the lake water for both domestic and farming use but due to the high salinity content in the water sources, it is not favourable for human consumption hence putting lives at risk”.
He also highlighted that the sand mining in the district which largely accounts for wetland encroachment, which could be a possible reason for the rise in numbers of the hippopotamus conflicting with humans as they search for food and shelter.
The Law
While the number of humans killed by hippopotamuses and crocodiles rise in Namayingo district, fishermen have resorted to hunting these animals and killing them for meat.
A group of fishermen at Lugala beach in Banda Sub-County confessed to occasionally eating hippopotamus meat and reveal it is as delicious as cow beef.
According to the Wildlife Act 2019, a person who without a permit takes, hunts, molests or reduces into possession protected specimen or is found with, sells, buys transfers or accepts transfer of protected specimen, commits offence and shall on conviction, be liable to a maximum fine of shs.200million or to a jail term or both.
During a parliament sitting held on August 11, 2022, on Operationalization of the Wildlife Fund, Tom Butime the Minister of tourism, wildlife and Antiquities said that, overfishing, increasing human population and encroaching on wetlands and lake shores for agricultural expansion has resulted in scarcity and unavailability of food for hippopotamuses forcing them to venture into farmlands in protected zones.
He cautioned, communities to observe the laws related to fishing, and management of lakeshores so that wildlife and humans can co-exist peacefully.
According to the Uganda Environment Act, people are supposed to live 200 metres away from the bank shore and fishing is only permitted with proper equipment.
Isma Kaliisa a fisherman at Lugala who survived a hippopotamus attack with a cut on the stomach in 2021, said that they are aware of the law on fishing equipment but they can’t afford it.
“If government could initiate a loan fund to help us purchase modernised fishing equipment, it would also be another way to reduce the rising loss of lives since hippopotamuses fear engine boats,” he said.
Sensitisation the only working solution.
Uganda Wildlife Authority spokesperson Hangi Bashir, said that, the only solution is to sensitise communities to be more cautious, so as to live and co-exist with the hippopotamuses.
“Because people are over fishing and going beyond to breeding zones where the hippopotamuses feed from, they are at risk of encountering these deadly animals. So as humans who depend on the lake water, our responsibility is to be aware and careful at all times,” he said.
He also revealed that, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is ready for compensation of damaged goods, property, human death and injuries caused by a wild animal outside a protected zone. And 2% of the wildlife fund revenue has been gazetted for this cause as per the Wildlife Act 2019.
Dr. Aventino Kasangaki an ecologist, conservation biologist, consultant and Google scholar, recommends sensitisation and creating community conservation areas as a solution.
“We can gazette areas on the shores and empower communities to manage them; this way communities will benefit directly from the tourism value attached and also embrace the good in biodiversity,” he said.
By Hedwig Arinaitwe