Date: 9 December 2016
Source:NewVision
In many of the landing sites such as Nangoma, Bulebi, Kiziru and others, residents are not allowed to re-build their grass-thatched houses for fear that they will catch fire and cause further destruction but they do not offer them any other option of accommodation other than leaving the landing site.
Water and land grabbing refers to a situation where powerful individuals or institutions take control of land and water resources at the expense of the local communities where these resources are located. Sometimes, ‘grabbing of land and water’ is hidden in the phrase: ‘willing buyer, willing seller’! but actually, in many cases, it is far from that.
Although water and land grabbing is reported to be happening in many parts of the country, the situation however, in fishing communities is alarming. In Mukono district, Mpunge sub-county, fishing communities are being slowly but surely eaten away by the greedy land grabbers who have no pity, sympathy or leniency for the poor fisher men, women and children who solely depend on fishing as their source of livelihood.
On the other hand, the government, has on several occasions denied the allegations of selling the lake or parts of it. Unfortunately, the government has continuously issued licences to the so-called investors or, as they claim to have been given licences to do their work on the lake for such a long time. To the local communities, in their eyes; it is equivalent to ‘selling’ and quite often statements like “the government has sold the lake” are heard as one interacts with the local people.
More so, the new ‘owners’ of the water and land near the lake often restrict fishermen and their activities to only certain parts of the lake and forcing community members to squeeze themselves on a limited space on the landing site creating competition for limited resources and other associated issues like conflicts among others.
Some reports have indicated mistreatment by known and unknown individuals as a major threat to the livelihoods of people in these fishing communities. Worse still, efforts to seek the attention of the leaders to address these problems have so far been futile.
As competition for the finite land and water resources continues, the battle against ‘illegal’ fishing also takes hold to the detriment of the same group of people namely the local fisher men, women and children. The so-called illegal nets that are being confiscated from fishermen from one landing site, are the same ones being sold to fishermen at another landing site!
Whereas our environmental laws provide for a 200 metre buffer zone between the lake and any other activities on the land, in some of the landing sites such as Nangoma, people that acquired land adjacent to the lake actually extended their ownership to the lake, to the extent of planting flags in the water to demarcate where their land (and in this case it should be their water) stops!
The booming business of sand mining in Bulebi has impelled landlords to displace people and re-settle them on alternative pieces of land with no sufficient compensation. More than 1500 people have been displaced and still living under uncertainty regarding their security on the current piece of land.
In many of the landing sites such as Nangoma, Bulebi, Kiziru and others, residents are not allowed to re-build their grass-thatched houses once they catch fire because the land lords want to re-claim their land and get residents out of the landing site.
Buying and selling of land takes place without the knowledge of the community members. They simply wake up the following morning and behold, there is a new landlord. It has been found out that for some of these landlords, their lease actually expired many years ago, but they still collect money from the occupants. This is a completely an illegal act and unacceptable by the law. Some times the same residents pay money to different landlords.
There is limited knowledge on who the rightful landlord is and what the right amount of money for the land fees should be and how often this should be paid. In some of the landing sites, the amounts paid range from sh3000 to sh5000 per month and elsewhere it is sh100,000 with no clarity on how often this should be paid. To worsen the situation, there is no acknowledgement or evidence of payment for this money.
It is important to note that community members are not totally ignorant of what is going on. They sometimes try to resist and they know that they are being treated unfairly, they comply out of fear and to protect their day to day livelihood strategies! Local leaders too are placed in a situation where they want to serve citizens, protect their positions and loyalty to their superiors as they complain of licences issued with “orders from above”.
This grabbing of water and land brings with it significant implications for basic human rights for the fishing communities. Their right to water, food, work, and self-determination is greatly compromised. It is high time we respect the rights of people in fishing communities. The government need to intervene and stop this impunity!
This article has been written and extracted from the research findings of Katosi Women Development Trust (KWDT), an NGO working in the fishing communities in Mukono.