Assessing the impacts of Nakivale refugee settlement camp on the environment :

Abstract

The continent that has attracted large number of refugees in the world is Africa. In 2015, around 86 percent of the world’s refugees under UNHCR mandate meaning 19.9 million people were hosted by developing countries with 4.4 million people, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with largest number of refugees. Uganda is one of eight African countries that agreed to apply the CRRF concepts according to (Giles, 2017). With 1.4 million refugees, Uganda has become one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations. It is also hailed as one of the most welcoming countries for refugees, having implemented an open-door policy and self-reliance approaches since 1999. As of 2020, Nakivale hosts nearly 132,000 refugees from various African countries, more than twice as many as it had in 2014 (58,000), the large influx of refugees put pressure on environment and natural resources. This study was conducted in Nakivale settlement camp in the three zones of Base camp, Juru, and Rubondo so as to gather information on the impacts of refugees on the environment. This was aimed to gather information to identify the human activities taking place in the camp, assess the impacts of human activities on the environment in Nakivale settlement camp, and identify the mitigation measures to the impacts resulting from human activities in Nakivale settlement camp. Data was collected using three methods, that is, questionnaire, interviewing, and observation. Simple random sampling method was used to come up with a sample size of 75 respondents. Data was collected, entered and analyzed using SPSS 20 and results were presented by use of frequency tables, bar graphs and pie-charts. The study revealed that majority of the refugees do more crop growing as a source of livelihood, therefore a lot of pressure is put on environment and natural resources through clearing tress and vegetation for farming hence soil is exposed to heavy rain is eroding. Settlement sites are being littered with degradable and non-biodegradable materials because of trading in different centres. The study further revealed that not all hope is lost as there are potential measures for the refugees to solve such issues through planting trees, sensitization of the farmers then collection of solid wastes and burning of them. The study recommended that a lot more effort be put in population control as a critical intervention for the increasing number of refugees in the camp hence conserving the environment, also development and enforcement of by- laws in the management of environment in settlement camps should be strengthened.