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Now source of Nile falls to an investor
Daily Monitor Team/ 9th April 2008
Kampala
Jinja District Land Board has taken the land bonanza to a higher level-giving away the source of River Nile to an investor.
The move has raised concern among environmentalists, conservationists and lovers of nature and history.
Details are still scanty but the lucky beneficiary is believed to have used a yet-to-be named Malaysian company to acquire what could be the world’s most precious piece of real estate that even renowned billionaires could never afford on the open market.
The property could be worth trillions of dollars but environmentalists say it is simply priceless.
The hitherto most outrageous acquisition in Uganda’s financial history was also effected through a Malaysian company when the national banking chain, then Uganda Commercial Bank, was in late 1990s fraudulently transferred to a local businessman who was closely working with a military general.
Jinja authorities allegedly based on the granting of controlling rights over the source on the investor’s plan to build a five star hotel and an 18 hole golf course nearby.
The Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, Ms Maggie Kigozi, said yesterday she was aware of the move. “I know about it but the discussion is ongoing,” she said, “It has been going on for a while and I personally have not heard anything new.”
Asked about the implications of such a project, to a site of such a high historic, cultural and social value, Ms Kigozi said, “The development is not right on that spot, it’s not taking over that point in particular”.
But her comment will do little to dull the anxiety of Ugandans who have witnessed frenzied land bonanzas that threatened historic national institutions and protected sites like the Mabira Central Forest Reserve.
The new owners will now take control over the source of the longest river in the world along whose banks human civilisation started, and which runs over 6,695 kilometres (4,184 miles) to the Mediterranean Sea, providing life for Egypt’s 75.5 million people and Sudan’s 36.8 million and having a huge impact on Uganda’s 30 million people.
Nema Public Relations Officer Naomi Karekaho said the environmental protection body was not aware of the developments at the source of the Nile. “If it is a project that is likely to have a big impact on the environment, then we would require an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) or a project brief but in this case they have not yet come to us,” she said.
Long protracted negotiations on the usage of the Nile have been going on mainly through the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) which brings together countries especially around Lake Victoria and the great Lakes region which together claim a share of the larger source of River Nile’s waters.
The upper riparian states (countries around the source) have for long complained about what they say were unfair agreements signed by colonialist Britain mainly on behalf of Egypt that gave it a bigger say on the usage of the Nile at the expense of the countries who contribute its waters.
It is yet to be seen how NBI will react to the handing over of the management of the river to a private venture capitalist.
Reported by Charles Mwanguhya, Isaac Mufumba & Hussein Bogere
Is this a total sell out, people moving away?
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