Executive Director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA, Tom Okurut.

The Executive Director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA, Tom Okurut wants  government to give part of the environmental protection levy to NEMA so as to strengthen its staffing in most parts of the districts.

The environmental levy which is under the consolidated fund is estimated to be at a tune of 100 billion shillings.

He says that districts have one environment enforcement officer yet many of wetlands and environments are abused in districts without law applied against the encroachers.

Okurut says that parliament should prevail over government to transfer environmental levy collected by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to NEMA to be used in environmental protection across the country and avert the problem of underfunding that NEMA is currently facing.

He says that NEMA needs a coordination grant for environment management in all districts.

Environmental protection levy was intended for revenue generation, Pollution control, restore degraded ecosystems among others.