Parliament has directed the immediate halting of all sand mining on Lake Victoria and the Lwera wetland as government formulates regulations guiding the activities.
This is the second time Parliament is giving the directive following an earlier one given after the Committee on Natural Resources visited the said areas and made recommendations to the same effect last year.
During Thursday’s sitting chaired by Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, Members of Parliament expressed their disappointment in government’s failure to halt the illegal sand mining in Lake Victoria and Lwera Wetland.
The directive followed a Statement by the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Irene Muloni, on the status of sand mining in Lwera Wetland.
Muloni said that the Ministry could not take action on the issue because it was barred by the Constitution.
“The Constitution exempts sand from being regulated by the Ministry because of its use in construction. We have no mandate over its mining,” said Muloni adding that, “We are however trying to carry out stakeholder consultations and come up with regulations that centre around sand mining to be included in the law.”
MPs were angry that government always ignored Parliament resolutions, and even continued to launch mining and dredging activities by private firms despite House decisions.
“Some of our colleagues are calling us saboteurs; people are still being given the go-ahead to dredge the lake and we are struggling to make resolutions that are not being respected,” said Hon. Thomas Tayebwa (Ruhinda North).
“The Minister of Water told us that criminal charges were opened against Mango Tree, which is dredging sand from the Lake, however the following day government officials were launching the same activity,” he added.
In addition, Hon. James Kakooza (NRM, Kabula) said that Parliament has on several occasions asked for sand mining to stop but that the activity continued.
“We have issues of water; Lwera is a water catchment area but sand is being drawn from there; this is going to affect agriculture in the surrounding area,” he said.
Hon. Herbert Ariko (FDC, Soroti Munic.) also added that NEMA was being stopped from doing its work. He said that an inter-ministerial review workshop had led to an investigation of the sand dredging in Lake Victoria and had found that the sand mining harms breeding grounds for fish.
The Minister of State for Energy, Hon Simon D’ujanga, said halting sand mining would negatively affect the country.
“We have construction projects that are on-going in the country like the Karuma dam so you cannot ask us to stop mining sand; the country will be plunged into a lot of losses,” the Minister said.
First Deputy Prime Minister, Gen. Moses Ali said that there is a Committee investigating the matter, asking legislators to hold the fire.
“Cabinet sat and found the entire matter very complex, we want to come up with concrete solution; give us a week to come up with a response,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker, following the submissions ruled that as a directive, all the activities on sand mining should be stayed until Cabinet gives it position, which is expected in one week.
Source: Parliamentary News