Pointing at a heap of plastic bottles and polythene littered along the trail, Brian Toshi Bwana of Umoja Conservation Trust said, the vegetation around Tororo rock will be gone in the next few years if efforts are not taken to control the littering.
“If one hundred people happen to climb this rock everyday, and each one of them is littering the plastics, what will this place look like in the next years,” Toshi wondered. Even atop the 4,865 feet plug, another heap of plastics was sighted.
There are a couple of telecom masts raised on the same plug. Some residents wonder why the private telecom companies do not offer to ensure safe disposal of plastics by providing skips or routine cleanliness, as a way of Corporate social responsibility.
Tororo rock which is located in the Eastern part of Uganda is a key feature by which the district derived its name. The Eiffel tower is to Paris as the magnificent Tororo rock is to Tororo district.
The volcanic plug is a key tourism feature in the area with vast ancestral caves and various rock paintings. However, with threats of littering and pollution, the feature may lose its potential as a tourist attraction.
Encroachment
As a carbon sink and a home to unique flora and fauna, the igneous Tororo rock is also said to be under encroachment. Though, already positioning itself as a natural heritage and attracting a number of visitors ranging from the locals, for divine interventions, scholars for research and tourists both local and international, the giant Tororo rock is yet to be gazetted as one of Uganda’s natural heritages for tourism.
Encroachers seem to have taken advantage of this status to start getting pieces of plots off the rock, which places the outstanding feature at the risk of getting destroyed for human settlement, quarrying and mining.
“We are worried that if no adequate protection is undertaken, we are likely to not only lose the rock but also its unique flora and fauna such as the endemic Aloe tororoana,” expressed Silas Anguti, the Tororo district forests and wetlands officer.
Heritage site
During this year’s World wildlife day celebrations that were held in Tororo district on March, 3, the Minister for Tourism Wildlife and Antiquities Col. (Rtd) Tom Butime pledged to have the rock considered for gazetting as a heritage site.
“Under the 2022 Museum and Monuments ACT, we will find out whether we should or should not declare Tororo rock as a national cultural heritage site. Once we declare and gazette it as a national cultural heritage site, then it is protected by the government, and encroachers will have no other opportunity,” minister Butime explained.
The Museum and Monument ACT 2022 aims at effecting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – UNESCO Convention of 1972 on the Protection of Cultural and Natural heritage, protecting cultural and natural heritage resources and the environment.
It also aims at strengthening and providing institutional structure for effective management of the museums and monuments, prohibiting illicit trafficking of protected objects, and promoting local content of cultural and natural heritage.
About Tororo Rock
The rock is a volcanic plug which was created when magma hardened within a vent on an active volcano. It is visible from any part of the district. Surrounded by a unique flora and fauna such as monkeys, rabbits, birds, porcupines, small antelopes, among other rare species.
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