Ugandan wetland controversy

A news story from Uganda reports that the Ugandan National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the Kampala City Council are struggling to resolve conflicting interests related to the Nakivubo Swamp, a wetland near at the mouth of Lake Victoria that protects the lake from the polluted Nakivubo channel carrying effluent and sewage from Kampala. Cultivation and human settlement have reduced the size of the wetland to an estimated 20 per cent of it its size from 30 years ago. The swamp was the first wetland reserve to be gazetted in Uganda and will be the location of a site visit by participants in the upcoming 9th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties for the RAMSAR Convention, 8-15 November 2005.