Urgent measures need to be taken to save the remaining patch of glaciers on Mt Rwenzori, a Ramsar site, or else they will soon be gone.
According to conservationists, the glaciers on the snow-capped mountain on the Equator have reduced from 6.5sq km 100 years ago to less than 1%.
“Scientifically, it is too late to save the mountain. In the next 10 years the glaciers will be gone,” noted Bryan Toshi, the founder trustee of Umoja Conservation Trust.
“The best time was 50 years ago. The second best time was yesterday. The next best time is now,” Toshi added.
Toshi was addressing a conference of Rotary and Lions Club members, religious, elected and appointed leaders and civil society organisation representatives in Kasese recently.
The one-day conference, convened by Umoja Conservation Trust, was held at Kasese Secondary School in Kasese Municipality.
Toshi said the conference was meant to act as a wake-up call to the pending doom on the mountain, described as unparalleled in its beauty, terrain, flora and fauna.
The conference attributed the catastrophe to global warming, compounded by man-made environmental degradation.
Toshi said the conference, among other things, resolved to embark on massive tree planting, to save the ailing Mt Rwenzori and the entire eco-system including neighbouring wetlands and lakes.
“For the sake of the many Ugandans who depend on this mountain for tourism, we can protect the biodiversity in the wildlife if we act today,” Toshi said.
