FORT PORTAL -The King of Tooro, His Majesty Dr.Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV has urged his subjects and the general public to conserve the environment to mitigate climate change effects.
King Oyo said people in his Kingdom have continued to degrade the environment despite interventions to conserve it which has led to the drought that has affected the region and the country at large.
“We need to plant trees and stop encroaching on wetlands and forests in order to conserve the environment. By doing this we will combat drought that has been affecting us following massive destruction of wetlands and forests in the Kingdom and the country at large,” he said.
King Oyo was speaking during the swearing-in ceremony of members of the Kingdom supreme council on Friday at Muchwa Kingdom Parliament in Fort Portal city.
He appealed to the clan leaders, Kingdom ministers, and county chiefs to sensitize the public on the dangers of degrading the environment and urge them on conserving it.
“I recently toured around river Mpanga and found out that the rate of degradation is so alarming. This is our main source of water that needs to be preserved,” he noted.
River Mpanga originates from Rwenzori mountains, and snakes through Fort Portal city, Kabarole, Kyenjojo, and Kamwenge before it flashes its waters into Lake George.
In 2019, King Oyo launched a campaign to plant 10 million trees in his Kingdom in Five years as a way of fighting extreme weather conditions and restoring wetlands.
He urged the public not to plant eucalyptus trees in wetlands because they consume a lot of water and wetlands may dry up.
He noted that the forests in the area are being cleared and the tree cover is getting depleted by charcoal burners.
The first deputy Prime Minister of Tooro Kingdom, Harriet Nyakake said because of environmental degradation, Tooro’s weather has now changed unlike in the past when it used to be cool all the time.
“We are facing hard times because people have betrayed nature. We used to have rain all the time but these days, we can even spend three months with no rain, and we, therefore, need to do something urgently,” she said.
She commended the King for leading by example in fighting environmental degradation.
She appealed to Kingdom officials, local leaders, religious leaders, and the general public to embrace the King’s campaign of conserving the environment by planting trees to prevent the effects of climate change.
King Oyo has led many interventions to conserve the environment including planting trees on the banks of River Mpanga and around his palace, cleaning River Mpanga, and providing waste bins along the River banks to protect it from being a dumping place for garbage.
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