A dying river. SCOUL factory’s distillery, which produces alcoholic spirits from sugar molasses, has set off a litany of complaints in regard to air and water pollution, writes Sudhir Byaruhanga.
“We used to drink this water from the river without boiling it and we had never got sick. The water was pure but the colour changed about five years ago,” Hakim Salongo, resident
The Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL) factory in Lugazi is dotted with a lush terraced sugarcane vegetation and meandering streams of fresh water providing breathtaking beauty. For 90 years, this firm, run by the Mehta family, has fanned the appetites of those with a sweet tooth and uplifted Uganda’s nascent economy.
In April 2007, President Museveni proposed to give SCOUL part of Mabira forest to expand their sugar plantation after the Mehta family claimed they lacked enough cane. This resulted in a public backlash, with violent protests rocking Kampala. The plan to give away the forest was thereafter shelved.
About five years ago, the company opened a distillery which produces alcoholic spirits from sugar molasses, a byproduct in sugar production. The distillery set off a litany of complaints from regard in regard to air and water pollution.
As the skies opened in a fit of ever-consuming rage early in the morning, we drove to Lugazi Municipality in Buikwe District to investigate the allegations. The municipality is growing at a snail-pace and the major economic activity here is sugarcane growing and subsistence farming.
Across the valley adjacent to Kawolo Hospital lies a sugarcane plantation which provides peerless beauty on Jinja Highway. Inside the plantation, flows various streams. On another side of the plantation flows streams that form rivers Mubeya and Kayirira, which spill into other water bodies.
All these rivers spewing pale-brown waters as a result of contamination join river Musamya and Sezibwa.
Undercover discovery
On our second day, we go to the plantation using ravel roads at about 3am. Not far from the location of the bio-composite plant, which makes fertilisers from the distillery effluents, there is an open gutter brimming with untreated effluents from the distillery. The brown effluents flow largely at night to the composite plant. Some of them, which are not utilised, are diverted elsewhere. The effluents contain acids and other chemicals that are dangerous to the environment and residents if consumed in streams. They also sip into the soils and gradually join the water table that serves as a source of water for the locals and streams.
On the third day, we locate where the effluents are diverted to. At sunrise, we hide to avoid being noticed by security and other workers on the plantation. We remain alert, suspicious of any movement by persons and vehicles. It is not long before we unravel the point of pollution at a place called Wambwa, in the middle of the plantation away from the road towards the bio composite plant. We find culverts nearly submerged in the porous dark brown effluents. The water here ominously turns black as it flows out of this clean environmental cover. This polluted water joins River Musamya.
