development at national and even regional level. For in-
Box 5. The District Environment Action Plan
stance, there has been speculation regarding the underly-
ing cause of the lowering of the water level in Lake Victo-
The District Environment Action Plan (DEAP) is a synthesis
ria. Some reports indicate release of excess water at the
of community perceptions of environmental issues. It high-
Owen Falls Dam as the cause. A recent report by the Re-
lights major problems faced by the people, their causes and
any actions required to tackle them. The plan looks at the
gional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development
issues from both a sectoral and cross-sectoral basis. When
(RCMRD) in Kenya however, indicated that the lowering
complete, the DEAP is integrated into the District Develop-
of the water level is the result of increased evapo-transpira-
ment Plan to ensure that district resources are effectively al-
tion from the lake due to heavy silt and the resultant high
located to address the priority environmental problems iden- heat capacity of the lake water (Khumala 2008). This re-
tified through the consultative process. sult will be further verified by the assessment input to the
proposed ‘Atlas of Uganda’s Changing Environment’ cur-
rently under preparation (UNEP-GRID Arendal/NEMA
Contributing to development processes at forthcoming). The significance of this information is
the local government level that it can help decision makers to properly target actions
At lower levels, the DSOER is designed to play a big role aimed at addressing the problem of transboundary issues
as a planning tool. It identifies, explains and measures all such as lowered water levels in Lake Victoria.
significant environmental problems in the district iden-
tified through a survey of environmental problems con- Using technology to support planning and
ducted at the grassroots. This survey is synthesized into policy decisions
a District Environment Action Plan and finally integrated It is well documented that development of Information
into the District Development Plan (see Box 5). and Communications Technology (ICT) is vital for rural
transformation and a strong engine for national develop-
As a monitoring tool, the DSOER is used to evaluate the ment. This is part of the rationale behind the promotion
effectiveness of the DEAP in addressing the identified en- of technology such as Geographical Information Systems
vironmental problems. It feeds directly into the national (GIS) and Internet connectivity at the national and lower
environmental monitoring system, in that the informa- levels. NEMA has for some time been using the Inter-
tion generated at district level is aggregated and synthe- net to communicate with a local and global audience,
sised into a national SOER. through its website:
http://www.nemaug.org. GIS is in-
creasingly being used in advocacy, awareness, research,
The success of the DSOERs would appear to lie in the up- education and decision-making in Uganda. It is a compu-
take or ownership of the process by the districts. The real- terised mapping system that employs technology such as
ity is that although the DSOER is prepared by the District remotely sensed satellite images and Global Positioning
Environment Officer in consultation with district sectoral Systems (GPSs) for analysis.
staff, the entire process is heavily facilitated (financially
and otherwise) by NEMA. As a result, in many districts it NEMA is in possession of satellite imagery covering the
tends to be viewed as a ‘NEMA’ process. Indeed if NEMA whole of Uganda for the years 1990 and 2000 that was
were to withdraw its support to the districts it is question- provided by UNEP under the Africa Environment Infor-
able whether DSOERs would continue to be produced. mation Network programme. Additional data has recently
This also extends to the EIS database which appears to be been received from the Regional Centre for Mapping of
an isolated product. It is not integrated in a district data- Resources for Development in Nairobi Kenya for the years
base covering all possible sectors; and when questioned, 1972 to date. This latter data is being used in the produc-
it is clear that the custodian for this database is the DEO, tion of the “Atlas of Uganda’s Changing Environment”.
and not the district. This is a clear weakness as it does not
encourage district-wide ownership of the EIS. The data provided by UNEP has been shared with a
number of EIN institutions and is already being used at
There are also technical challenges that undermine national level as a monitoring tool to support policy de-
the quality of the DSOER. During this study, the DEO velopment. An example is the use of GIS to support the
of Masindi indicated that district officials need simple inventory work of Uganda’s wetlands. This research has
equipment like cameras, mobile laboratory kits, global resulted in the protection of wetlands that provide key eco-
positioning systems, noise meters and air quality moni- logical functions, such as the Nabajuzzi wetlands in Ma-
tors to be able to improve the data and information qual- saka municipality for its water supply functions, as well as
ity of the DSOERs. its important role as a habitat to wildlife, in particular the
Sitatunga; and Nakivubo and Kirinya swamps in Kampala
Supporting regional development for their effluent water purification roles (NEMA 2004).
initiatives
The SOE reports have provided vital information that dem- While EIS technology has added value to planning proc-
onstrates how natural resources degradation undermines esses at national level, this is not the case at the lower
16 Best Practices in Environmental Information Management in Africa
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