CRI听力: Uganda Glaciers Shrinking

In the heart of equatorial Africa, the ice caps are shrinking fast on Uganda's Rwenzoris. A century ago the Rwenzori glaciers were surveyed at 7.5 square kilometers. The area covered by glaciers halved between 1987 and 2003 and is now down to only about 1.3 square kilometers.


Our reporter Li Dong has the details.


Standing at 5100 meters above sea level, the Rwenzori mountain range is the third highest in Africa after Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. However, its glaciers are slowly disappearing.

Scientists predict a total loss of ice ringing Africa's three highest peaks sometime in the next two to five decades.

Nelson Guma is the Senior Warden of the Rwenzori Mountains.(www.hXen.com)

"The most noticeable effect of climate change is the melting of the glaciers. The glaciers have shrunk from 7.5 square kilometers a hundred years ago to now less than one square kilometer. Now, when you do not have the glaciers then you have consequences like flash floods because the precipitation is not frozen."

According to the Ugandan National Environmental Management Authority, the River Semliki in this region has widened by an average of 10 meters due to the shrinkage of the glaciers.

Some fear the melting of the glaciers could cause problems between those living on either side of the River Semliki.

Current explorations in the oil rich area has led to the discovery of approximately 1.5 billion barrels of oil along the Ugandan shore with exploration expected to continue where the Semliki divides the two countries.

Everest Kigozi is the communications officer for the National Environmental Management Authority.

"This is one of the areas where the oil and gas survey is in the final stages, so if the boundary is shifting, this could lead to a conflict. Congo can say no, this belongs to us while Uganda can be saying the boundary used to be here."

Meanwhile, the continuous changes in the course of the River Semliki has resulted in many Ugandan farmers losing control of their land.

Musige Amos is a troubled Ugandan farmer.

"Our land used to be in Uganda and at the moment it's now in Congo and its now protected and managed by another country, the DRC, which has got its cultural leaders. By the time it was taken to the Congo those cultural leaders hindered us from cultivating that land. They made us pay with goats, heifers and money, then when we paid that's when they allowed us to continue farming."

In addition to being forced to pay for the newly acquired Congolese territories, Ugandan farmers are incurring additional costs because they're crossing the Semliki every day in order to tend to their land.

For China Drive, I am Li Dong.