RUBANDA: They are protesting the decision by the National Environmental Authority (NEA) to stop the construction of an artemether processing plant in a wetland that is very important to the health of the people in the area.
It comes a day after NEMA directed VISPA Botanicals Limited to stop all activities in a wetland in Bubare Town Council along the Kabale-Kisoro road. The environmental body intervened after two district councillors complained to the authorities that Savan Nayankumar, the proprietor of VISPA Botanicals Limited, was accused of setting up the plant in a wetland.
In a March 7, 2022, letter, Barirega Akankwasa, the Executive Director of NEMA, accused Nayankumar of draining a wetland to establish a factory without approval from NEMA, contrary to section 157 of the National Environment Act No.5 of 2019.
According to Rubanda district authorities, the land in question measures about two acres and belongs to Edith Rubereti, a resident of the same area who holds a freehold land title in her late husband’s name. Rubanda LC 5 Chairperson, Stephen Ampeire Kasyaba, says that the contested area was never demarcated as a wetland, which explains their decision to allow the investor to construct the processing plant there.
He explains that the investor assured them that the plant would not pose any danger to the environment, such as air pollution, since it would have no serious gas emissions and would only be involved in drying the Artemether, which doesn’t require sophisticated machinery.
Kasyaba also noted that the processing plant would employ about 2000 people, and the least paid would be the casual labourers earning between 7000 and 10,000 shillings daily. Without revealing names, Kasyaba also accused two district councillors who petitioned NEMA of expressing support for the government’s plan of evicting people from Rubanda wetlands, yet it’s the only viable agricultural land available in the district.
Wilfred Arinda Nsheeka, the Rubanda LC 5 Youth Councillor, says that he conducted inquiries about the land in question and found out that it was not a wetland. He claimed that some councillors opposed to development were being used to sabotage the investor at the expense of the locals.
Isa Muhumuza, the Chairperson of the People Living with Disabilities-PWDs, questioned NEMA’s intention of writing to the investor without consulting district authorities on how the investor obtained permission to start construction works on the land in question.
Locals of Bubare Town Council are also protesting NEMA’s orders to stop the processing plant. Several hotel owners, including Demitori Niwahanga, Phionah Kyakunzire, and Eunice Tumwebemeze, told our reporter that they are now unable to sell food items they had bought for more than 120 construction workers who worked on the project.
Edith Rubereti, the owner of the land in question, told URN that she holds a freehold title that she acquired in 1972. She says that she transferred the land title from her late husband’s name to her own in 2021.
She dismissed claims that the place was a wetland, adding that before they gave out the land for construction, the investor consulted the land offices in Mbarara and Kampala to confirm that it wasn’t a wetland. In this story, Nayankumar hasn’t said anything because all of his known phone numbers were not working at the time this storey was being written.