Ronald Musoke’s article (NEMA’s regular exposure of polluters good, New Vision, January 18, 2008) applauding NEMA for its plan to expose polluters in the media is utterly disappointing. Disappointing because merely listing environmental criminals in the media will not arrest the massive environmental damage the country has suffered over the last three decades – owing to policy and institutional failure.
The perpetrators of environmental crime are known not only to NEMA but the general public. In any case, the majority of industrial polluters operate based on EIAs which have been fraudulently approved by NEMA. The public has itself exposed various environmental violations and implored NEMA to take action – alas to no avail. So of what relevance will be the listing?
NEMA - the principal government agency for the management of the environment with the mandate to coordinate, supervise and monitor all activities in the field of environment has not delivered on its obligations. And of course, so are other government agencies responsible for implementing the Wildlife Act, National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, Regulations on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, Wetlands Policy 1994, Wildlife Policy 1996, Fisheries Policy 2000, Forest Policy 2001 and the National Energy Policy 2000, among others.
The National Environment Act, (Cap 153, Section 7) empowers NEMA to enforce adherence to environmental regulations and standards as laid down in various instruments. NEMA also draws extensive legal leverage from section 57 (2) of the Environment Statute, which states that a person who discharges hazardous waste into the environment commits an offence, and in addition to any other sentence imposed by the court, meets the cost of restoring the damage including paying for reparation and restitution to third parties. The law also empowers NEMA to issue restoration orders and to take other measures in case of non-compliance within 21 days.
There are other economic instruments too, such as environmental taxation, which NEMA could unleash to enforce compliance with environmental legislation. Environmental taxes have recently become popular internationally as a type of tax which successfully meets the goal of allocating liability according to the source of environmental harm. There are myriad environmental tax regimes but the most eminent falls within the polluter-pays principle.
The principle aims to ensure that the polluter bears the cost of damage and/or cost incurred in controlling the pollution (the abatement costs and environmental recovery cost). In addition, it recognises that the burden of proof in demonstrating that a particular technology, practice or product is safe should lie with the developer, not the general public. From a legal point of view, liability is founded on the principle that we are responsible and accountable to others for our actions.
It is therefore inconceivable that despite all such leverage, NEMA rather than enforce the law has opted for the exhibitionist approach of merely listing polluters in the media while the plunder, degradation, and abuse of the environment continue. Like most other Ugandan bodies, Iam certain the underlying reason for such exhibitionism is to increase NEMA’s public visibility so that it is seen to be active – albeit doing nothing!!
By its own account, NEMA acknowledges that the economic value of environmental degradation in Uganda ranges between 4% - 12% of the Gross National Product (GNP). And because most Ugandans directly depend on environmental resources for their livelihoods, environmental degradation has fomented unprecedented poverty. It is therefore almost treasonable that NEMA has chosen to lament about those who pollute the environment (by merely listing them in the media) instead of apprehending them!
If I may use the words of one of the French encyclopaedists during the French revolution, the problems of the day won’t be solved by words, but by sweat and blood! Ugandans need action rather than rhetoric to arrest the environmental down spiral. NEMA should bring all those who abrogate existing environmental legislation to account without fear or favour. Otherwise, NEMA’s top management officials should be apprehended themselves for neglect of duty and professional incompetence.
