• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Once water infiltrates the soil, it movesdownwards through "percolation".Percolation happens because of gravity,the force which pulls all things fromhigh places to lower ones. Gravity is why  water always flows from a high place,like a mountain ridge, to a lower placelike a valley.Groundwater also moves through thesoil. Some water ends up in streams, while some joins underground waterbodies called aquifers. Water fromaquifers feeds your bore hole.
W
e all live in a watershed. A watershed is simplyland and the water that runsthrough it, ending up in a riveror lake.Trees are an extremelyimportant part of watersheds.Without trees, water will flowtoo quickly and not have timeto slowly enter the ground andfill your groundwater. Streamswill run dry and water bodieswill become dirty. So let uslearn more about watersheds! 
 When rain comes, some falls intostreams and flows away. Some rainfalls on hard surfaces, such as rock or tarmac, and washes into rivers as"run-off". Some rain falls on the soiland enters or infiltrates it and becomes"groundwater".
Keep trees on your watershed
 V o l.  9  N o. 2 A p r i l  2 01 0
Started in 2002,
TreeTalk 
is a nationalnewspaper and tree-growing drive. With this
Tree Talk 
, your schoolwill receive seed for Albizia or Terminalia.Set up a school treenursery in 2010 and"green" your school.
Even if you stay far from a river or lake, you still live in a watershed because therain that falls on your home will find its way to some stream, lake, swamp oraquifer. Try this: take an open umbrellaand turn it upside down in the rain. All the rain that hits the umbrella willgather at the bottom in the center of the umbrella. An umbrella is like a watershed, collecting all the water thatfalls into it and bringing it to one place.
A watershed has three keyfunctions:
 1. receive water from theatmosphere (rain);2. store water in the ground so that we can get it from wells and boreholes;3. move water through the soil untilit reaches a river or lake.
 
Healthy watersheds bringus clean water for drinking,cooking and bathing. A healthy watershed iscreated by trees.Protecttrees and grow new ones.
Jobs for foresters.
Tree Talk's
Immaculate Chelangat holds adiploma from Nyabyeya ForestryCollege in Masindi.
Right:a pupil withLusambya seed in
TreeTalk 
's Moyo nursery.
This tree in Semlikiholds tonnes ofcarbon.Its rootsallow water topercolate deep intothe soil and flowto your borehole!Report illegal treecutting to NationalForestry AuthorityPRO Moses Watasaon 077-2-976398.Protect yourwatershed.
These hills in Bundibugyo need more trees toremain stable, avoid landslides and keep thewatershed full of clean and plentiful water forpeople and animals.
Photo:
K Tadie.
Healthy wetlands fullof fish and water.Good income fromsale of seedlings:
 UGX 500-700 for anindigenous seedling,UGX 450-550 for apine seedling.
Right:
 a
Tree Talk 
women'sgroup in Adjumani.
Soil has pores thatallow it to absorbwater. Soil that cannothold anymore water is"saturated".
Trees bring fast results
Money from tree seed. This young girlin Moyo made UGX 100,000 from selling20 kg of mahogany seed to
Tree Talk.
 
Tree Talk, April 2010
2
Uganda and the Nile watershed 
 A
 watershed can be any shapeor size, very big or very small.Large watersheds are made upof many smaller watersheds.The Nile is an extremely large watershed that includes the countriesof Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda,Tanzania, Kenya, the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea,Sudan and Egypt. In Uganda, over231,366 square kilometres belong tothe Nile River basin – that meansalmost all land in Uganda contributes water to the Nile!
In Uganda there are four major water catchment areas: Lake Victoria inthe south; Lake Albert in the west;Lake Kyoga in the centre; and theUpper Nile in the north. But they are allconnected: Lake Victoria in the south islinked to Lake Kyoga in the centre. The Albert Nile connects Lake Kyoga to Lake Albert in the west, which is also fed by  water from the Semuliki River. Lake Albert continues to the Upper Nile innorthern Uganda, then on to Sudan andEgypt. Watersheds are affected by activities faraway. In Adjumani, fish have become fewbecause there is less water in the Nile.Destruction of forests and swamps in western Uganda - 600 kilometres away! -has reduced the water flowing to thesmall streams that feed the Nile.
NEW WORDS
Replanting a degraded watershed in Gulu
P
ece watershed, near Gulu Town,is a much smaller watershed thanthe Nile River watershed, butit brings water for tens of thousandsof people living in Gulu and Oyamdistricts. Water from Pece flows into the TociRiver, which then flows to the Nile. Tociis a tributary of the Nile, which meansthat it is a smaller river that flowsinto the Nile. Big rivers can have many tributaries.But now the people of Pece watershedare suffering. Ojera Julius, of Abole vil-lage, said they used to get water from Abole stream, a tributary of Pece. "Forthe first time our well is dry. We nowhave to walk long distances to anotherborehole. The environment had becometoo bare of trees. The climate is affect-ing the water level."Lakwat-Omer village, neighbouring Abole, is also part of the Pece water-shed and shares its water problems.Residents of Lakwat-Omer and Aboleformed a community association to im-prove the health of their watershed. Thegroup is called Ribeber, which means“unity is good."Tree Talk teamed up with Ribeber in2009 to plant 3,500 seedlings of ma-hogany and albizia. Amunau Simon Peter, Tree Talk Co-ordinator, says: "As trees grow, they increase water retention and revitaliseboreholes. With fully grown trees, youcan be sure of better water availabil-ity. But where land is bare, water runs
 Aquifer:
underground water supply accessed by wells and boreholes.
Erosion:
when the earth’s surface is worn away by water and wind
Tributary:
a river that flows into alarger river
Infiltration:
when water on thesurface enters the soil
Porous:
a porous material is full of tiny spaces, allowing liquids or gasses topass through
Run-off: 
rain which flows over theearth’s surface into a river, stream orlake
Impermeable:
a material that isimpermeable does not allow water topass through.
Uganda's 4 watercatchments
 Watersheds and forestscontribute 40% of therains received in Uganda.This wetland in Pece ishealthy. Planting trees canincrease water supply.The shading shows all the land  being replanted by Tree Talk and Ribeber. In 2010, TreeTalk will help plant another12,000 seedlings and train the community members inmaintaining their own treenurseries.
Edea Lucy, Tree Talk Data Officer,handing over mahogany and albiziaseedlings to Ribeber.
The Nile River basin
How healthy is your watershed?
Look at a river near your home
Water: Is it clean or full of rubbish?A shine of many colours mayindicate that oil has pollutedthe water. Is it clear, or full ofweeds and tiny green and brownplants called algae? Algae is anindication of fertilizers in the water.River banks: Bare spots along thebanks may mean that there is toomuch soil in the river and it is beingleft behind. Very steep banks are anindication of erosion. Trees along theriver banks help to reduce erosion:do not farm here.Availability of water: Rivers lookdifferent in the dry and rainy seasons.However, healthy watersheds shouldhelp keep rivers flowing for longer,even during times of no rain.Shade: Trees near the river provideshade and a good environment forfish.Wildlife: Animals also like healthyrivers. If there are no fish, frogs, birdsor insects near the water, somethingmay be wrong.
away to streams andflows away quickly.In the replanted ar-eas of Pece, we may see higher water lev-els within 10 years.But other areas alsoneed to act to seereal change."
 
Tree Talk, April 2010
3
 Xavier Mugumya, ForestManagement Specialist atthe National Forest Authority (NFA) andan internationalclimate changenegotiator, says:
"At Copenhagen,countries did notconclude discussionon all the important items.But there is good will andrecognition that forestscontribute to regulating climatechange. People need incentivesto stop cutting trees.
 A
n example of anunhealthy, unstable and very dangerous watershed was in Bududa District. On2 March 2010, a landslideburied three villages on theslopes of Mt Elgon. At least90 people were killed in thelandslide and over 300 arestill missing. As many as 1million people may have toleave the area in case morelandslides occur.Bududa is heavily populated: as many as1,059 people are livingin 1 square kilometre of land, whereas the nationalaverage is 161 people persquare kilometre.Too many people areinhabiting an area wherethere used to be lots of trees to hold the soil andprevent erosion. Many people are farming onsteep slopes.
T
rees help regulate the weather, or climate, but fewtrees cannot do the work thatso many forests used to do.In December 2009, many scientists and governmentleaders met in Copenhagen,Denmark, to discuss howto prevent further climatechange.This meeting was called theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). Uganda sent ateam of 60 representatives toCopenhagen..
Damaged watersheds mean people suffer
T
he most important way toprotect your watershed isto protect existing trees andplant new ones.
Twenty years ago, 30% of land inUganda had forests. Today, it isless than 10%. Watersheds that lack trees causeproblems for people. In hilly areas,there can be landslides; in low-lying areas, there is the danger of flooding. Without trees to replenish rivers, women and children walk longdistances to fetch water. Droughtleads to crop failure and unhealthy livestock.How do trees help? Every part of atree supports a healthy watershed.Roots hold water, keeping toomuch rain from reaching theriver at once, which can lead to
Tree-cutting causes landslides
flooding. In the dry season, rootsslowly release the water they areholding, adding water to rivers andpreventing drought.Sometimesstrong waters from run-off carry away fertile soil. Where soil has washed away, we say the land iseroded. Tree roots hold soil andnutrients.Serious erosion has changed thecourse of the Semuliki River, on theborder of Uganda and D.R. Congo.Due to over-cultivation, thereare no trees to hold the soil. Theriver banks have shifted: it is nowdifficult to tell where the border is.Tree leaves also hold water. If youenter a forest after a rain, you will hear water dripping for many hours afterwards. Leaves catchrain and then release it so that itenters the soil slowly. Mahogany trees have big leaves for catching water and improving watershedhealth.
 A boy stands where his home once was. It wasswept away by the terrible landslide in Budada,near Mbale. Trees stabilise mountains so that soildoes not fall down into the valley with heavy rains. After the Bududa landslide, 5000people were moved into temporarycamps.They wait in long lines for food.Swamps in southern Sudanand forests in D.R. Congohelp the rain-makingprocess in Uganda.
 What is a landslide?
Moses Mapesa,Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) writes: 
“Can we avoid similardisasters in future andelsewhere? Yes...TheUWA have just recently concluded agreements withthe Bududa local governmentand the community to re-plant with trees all the degraded andencroached areas in theMt. Elgon National Park and the neighbouringareas...This arrangement allowsthe communities to planttrees that they benefitfrom in form of carboncredits and also to growcrops like cabbages,onions, passion fruitsunderneath the trees...This, however, will taketime; trees require aminimum of 10 yearsto have a proper gripof the soils. Therefore,prone areas must beavoided and evacuatedin these times of heavy rains."Carbon credits arepayments to people who grow trees. Thepayment is for thecarbon the growing treeabsorbs. Carbon gasescause global warming.
A landslide is when soil and rockmove down a slope, pulled by gravity.Landslides can be caused by earthquakes,flooding, or human activities likedeforestation or construction.The Bududa landslide occurred partlybecause of heavy rains. Water entered thepores in the soil, making the slope heavyand unstable. Clearing of forests left thesoil bare, without tree roots to hold it.
Trees stabilise hills and slow down climate change
Natural forests are the bestat catching and holdingwater and attracting rain.
There is a motion inplace for Uganda toreceive funds tosupport pocketsof preservednatural forests.Communitiesshould preparethemselves bystarting nowto protect theirremaining naturalforests.”
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...